ORL 





i , ■*> 



SAMUEt, PHH.i-S LB vwD, Ph p., i-t-l.' 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

— =, 

Shelf' 






UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




SAMUEL PHELPHS LELAND, Ph.D., LL. D. 



WORLD MAKING 



A Scientific Explanation of the Birth, Growth 
and Death of Worlds. 



BY 



SAMUEL PHELPS LELAND, Ph.D., LLD. 

"And this our life exempt from public haunt, 
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
Sermons in stones, and good in everything." 



CHICAGO 

Woman's Temperance Publishing Association 

1895 






Copyrighted in 1894 

BY 

SAMUEL PHELPS ICELAND. 



CONTENTS 



An Introductory Paragraph, - - - - 9 

The Measureless Realm, * - - - xi 

The Realm of Littleness, - - - - 37 

The Instruments We Use, 43 

Our Solar System, 53 

The Birth and Death of Worlds, - - - 83 



NOTE BY THE PUBLISHERS. 

This little book is written for the general reader. It 
is strictly scientific, and contains a record of discov- 
eries to the present time. But technical terms have 
been avoided, and the wonderful Story of Worlds is 
told in the simple language of common speech. 

Dr. Lei^and has been so frequently importuned to 
put in print the materials of which his lectures on 
World Making are made, that he has consented to do 
so. The lectures themselves, of course, are not repro- 
duced — that could only be done by the personal pres- 
ence of the lecturer and his hearers. It is hoped that 
this little book may create a desire to know more of 
this noble science. It needs no recommendation from 
us. The Publishers. 



AN INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH. 

We are in the midst of a wonderful creation. 
Around us are life and beauty. We are bewildered 
by the countless forms of living things that find a 
home in sea and land and sky. The teeming millions 
of thinking, struggling beings, with their varied forms 
and habits, and surrounded by curious environments, 
fill every space on our planet, while vegetation clothes 
the fields, and valleys, and hills with flowers and grass 
and trees. The lofty mountains lift their heads till 
their snow-crowned summits dimple the sky; and at 
their feet the undulating plains sweep out in vast 
reaches, pimpled with foot-hills and furrowed with 
valleys and ravines. The waterfalls sparkle in the 
sun, and send their clouds of mist upward like the 
smiles of faith. A thousand lakes mirror the radiant 
sky in their still waters, as the soul of innocence re- 
flects paradise. Above us is the bending sky, studded 
with countless stars. Constellations and systems swirl 
and burn in the abyss of space. Across the paths of 
planets the comets fly; and meteors write their fiery 
hieroglyphics on the celestial dial-plate. Wonders 
confront us everywhere. Magnitude and mystery are 
on every hand. On everything is an interrogation 
point. The What, the Where and the How, make the 
alphabet of the ages. They enter into every thought 
and are common to every speech. They are written 
on Earth and Sky. They are omnipresent. Science 
is laboring to solve the problems they suggest. It is 



IO 



AN INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH. 



measuring space and arranging calendars. It is broad- 
ening the mental vision of men. And in its sublime 
triumphs it has reached marvelous results. 



I :■ . 




THE SPACE ABOUT THE EARTH, 



THE riEASURELESS REALM. 

If, on a clear night, we look in the sky, there will 
be present to our unaided vision no fewer than six 
thousand stars. Excepting four or five of our fellow 
planets, that may at any one time be in our field of vis- 
sion, the stars we see are not worlds like ours. On the 
contrary they are suns, presumably the centers of sys- 
tems much like our own, and around each, doubtless > 
worlds and satellites revolve. The difference in mag- 
nitude between a World and a Sun is so great that it 
can be comprehended only by careful study ; but a few 
simple comparisons may aid us in grasping somewhat 
of the sublime distinction. 

It is a familiar knowledge that our Earth is a globe, 
nearly round. It has a diameter of about eight thou- 
sand miles, and a circumference of a little more than 
three times that distance. It revolves on its axis once 
each day, and makes a journey around the Sun each 
year. Accompanying the Earth in this journey is 
the Moon. This orb has a diameter of about two 
thousand miles, and goes around the Earth at a mean 
distance of two hundred and forty thousand miles ; 
making a revolution in a lunar month — about twenty- 
nine and one-half of our days — and revolving upon her 
axis in precisely the same length of time. Only one 
side of the Moon, therefore, is ever visible to the inhab- 
itants of our Earth. 



12 WORLD MAKING. 

And such is our great Earth with its attendant orb. 
We are amazed at its wonderful magnitude. Com- 
pared with the little sphere in which our every-day 
energies are expended, how vast the great Earth 
seems ! And yet, great as it is, it is very small when we 
compare it with our Sun. Its diameter is only eight 
thousand miles, while that of our Sun is almost nine 
hundred thousand miles. It is only twenty-five thou- 
sand miles around the Earth, but almost three millions 
of miles around the Sun. How small, indeed, is this 
great Earth compared with such a body ! 

Let us take a globe so small that it can be easily 
placed in a common goblet. This shall represent our 
Earth. Look on this little globe. Mark upon it a 
spot the size of your thumb-nail ; that shall represent 
the United States. Divide that into fifty equal parts, 
and one of these parts shall represent your state. 
On this part put the point of the finest cambric needle. 
That point represents your city. I^ook on this and see 
the enormous size of the earth compared with the 
scene in which your daily life is cast. Now lay this 
little globe, with its needle point upon it, over against 
a globe thirty feet in diameter. That great globe 
shall represent our Sun. Can you grasp the wonder- 
ful magnitude of a Sun ? 

To bring this magnitude more clearly to the mind, 
let me employ another illustration. As has been 
stated, the Moon revolves around the Earth at a mean 
distance of two hundred and forty thousand miles. 
The diameter of the Moon's orbit is therefore twice 
this distance, or four hundred and eighty thousand 



WORLD MAKING. 1 3 

miles. This is but little more than one-half the diam- 
eter of our Sun, which is so large that if his center 
were placed where our Earth is, his surface would be 
two hundred thousand miles beyond the Moon. This 
means, in other words, that if it were possible for the 
Moon to revolve around the center of the Sun, at the 
same distance from that center as it now is from our 
Earth, it would never come within two hundred thou- 
sand miles of the surface of the Sun. 

Perhaps some simpler comparisons may more for- 
cibly impress this magnitude upon the mind. 

I,et us suppose a hole bored from side to side, 
through the center of the Sun. Suppose a railway 
track through that wonderful tunnel. " A locomotive 
engine put on that track would have to be run thirty 
miles an hour, continuously, for nearly three and 
one-half years, to cover the vast distance ; and at the 
same rate of speed almost eleven years would be con- 
sumed in making a journey around the Sun ; such 
are his vast dimensions. 

On some summer's evening you may have sat upon 
the shore of a pond or pool and snapped pebbles 
into the smooth water. You may have watched the 
circling waves go out and out until they reached the 
shore, but you never saw the pool increase in vol- 
ume by the pebbles you snapped into it. So if some 
celestial giant were to snap ten. thousand Earths like 
ours, into the Sun, they would not visibly increase the 
size of that body. Their introduction into the Sun, 
would, of course, produce a chemical effect, but so 
far as the mechanical expansion is concerned it would 



14 WORLD MAKING. 

be imperceptible to our most perfect instruments. 
This may be better comprehended when it is under- 
stood that, supposing the Sun and Earth to be of the 
same consistency, it would require one million four 
hundred thousand Earths to make the body of the 
Sun. 

Such is the wonderful magnitude of our Sun ; and 
yet, no fact is clearer to the astronomer than that our 
Sun is one of the smallest that we know. Compared 
with Arcturus, or Sirius, or any of the central Suns 
in the Northern Constellations, that circle their cease- 
less journeys round the pole, our own Sun is but a 
mere baby in size. 

As has been said, there are no fewer than six thou- 
sand of these Suns within the range of our unaided 
vision. Analogy teaches us that around each of 
these Suns worlds like ours revolve, with their attend- 
ant satellites, and that comets, like ours, are shaking 
their fiery tresses in the face of every sky. Now, if 
our Earth were perfectly transparent, thus enlarging 
our visible horizon so that we could see the heavens 
beneath us as we now see them above us — so the 
Southern Cross would be as easily seen as the North- 
ern Dipper — the number of visible stars would be 
greatly multiplied, and probably no fewer than twen- 
ty-five thousand would be within the range of our 
vision. Within this enlarged horizon what a galaxy 
of Suns ! 

To the savage this magnificent exhibition has no 
meaning. To him, the sky is simply a vast dome 
that bends above him. Through this dome are count- 



WORLD MAKING. 1 5 

less holes, and through these some far-off lights but 
dimly filter. What the stars are he never cares to 
ask. They have nothing in common with him. 
Even to the man, who, far enough advanced in 
knowledge to have observed the movements of the 
stars, the blazing firmament means no more than a 
swarm of fire-flies that dance above a summer's 
marsh. He has added motion only to the passionless 
dome of the savage ; but the motion is without system 
or purpose. But to the man of thought and culture 
the heavens are redolent of meaning. There comes 
to him a joy unspeakable as he looks into the starry 
depths where circling systems run. Here Suns sweep 
in appointed lines, and blazing constellations in the 
trackless realms of space. Amid them the countless 
minor systems dash in and out, and over and under, 
in an apparent labyrinth of irregular motion, and 
crossing each other's pathways at every conceivable 
angle. The worlds and satellites dance about like 
motes in the bars of sunshine, while trailing comets 
sprinkle bright mosaics in the pathway of Suns. 
Sublime, indeed, to such eyes is this exhibition ! 
And he knows that all this irregularity of celestial 
movements is only apparent. All worlds move in 
geometric lines, and their movements are so exact 
that in all the ages there is "no variableness nor 
shadow of turning." Their paths are mathematical, 
and their motion uniform. No heavenly body has 
ever been an instant ahead of its schedule time, and 
not one a heart-beat behind it. And so uniform are 
the movements of all heavenly bodies, that, knowing 



l6 WORLD MAKING. 

as little as we now know of the laws governing these 
movements, we can calculate them with an accuracy 
that is delicate almost beyond belief. 

Science stands to-day and looks reverently into the 
face of this magnificent heaven. It sees far back of 
the visible, something that is invisible. Far back of 
matter, — back of every law, of every activity, of every 
energy — it recognizes a Force, which is the Force of 
all Forces. It cannot comprehend this Force. It 
does not attempt its comprehension. And yet there 
are certain elements entering into it which Science 
recognizes, and upon the truth of which it rests. The 
student cannot long study the delicate arrangement, 
and the adaptation of the several parts of this wonder- 
ful universe without being led to look back of the visi- 
ble to an unseen Cause. " The undevout astronomer 
is mad." This is not a universe of Chance. It is a 
universe of Law. Nothing ever happened. There is 
no accident. Each result is the direct sequence of 
causes, and follows them infallibly. Nor is this ar- 
rangement the result of a series of experiments. It is 
in the eternal nature of things. A Wisdom foresaw 
all from "the beginning," and endowed the universe 
with laws of absolute completeness. These laws have 
needed no revision. Science is builded on the recog- 
nition of this truth. Science is not irreverent. It 
does not doubt. It inquires ; but it clings closely to 
the Absolute. It sees the Perfect back of its own 
imperfect understanding. 

It should, perhaps, be stated here that, by Laws 
Science means the lines along which the activities of 



WORLD MAKING. 1 7 

the universe run. L,aw can do nothing ; it is not active. 
It is the highway of travel only. It is the prescribed 
method of doing. The power to act is back of the 
law ; and the law is the line along which force is ex- 
pended. Superficial students and thinkers often con- 
fuse terms. They make Law stand for Force, Power, 
Wisdom, etc., overlooking its plain meaning every- 
where. The true student marks these distinctions, as 
the reader of this book is requested to do. 

Back of matter we must recognize three things. 
First, there is a Wisdom that has planned, and so 
adjusted all the parts of the universe in such a perfect 
balance that there is no friction. And as the uni verse 
is infinite, the Wisdom that has planned it must be 
Infinite, too. Secondly, there is a Will that has fixed 
and ordained the activities and forces of the universe, 
and bound them by laws inflexible and eternal. And 
everywhere this Omnipotent Will has established the 
limitations and directions of the energies and pro- 
cesses, and has fixed their everlasting stability and 
uniformity. And as the universe is infinite this Will 
must be Infinite, too. And, thirdly, there is a Power 
that sustains and moves — a Power that never wearies 
— a Power which controls all Forces. And, as the 
universe is infinite this Power must be Infinite, too. 
What shall we name this Infinite Trinity — Wis- 
dom, Will and Power ? Science knows no simpler 
name for it than God. This name is all-embracing. 
We can conceive something of its meaning, though 
we cannot comprehend its awful significance. And 
this Being is the indwelling and ultimate. He is im- 



1 8 WORLD MAKING. 

manent in matter as in spirit ; and to Him all Law, 
Life, Force, must be referred. He is the sustaining, 
energizing, all-prevading Spirit of the universe. 

It is desirable that we grasp this thought. Permit 
me, therefore, a simple illustration. You see the man 
before you. And yet, paradoxical as it seems, you do 
not see him. Only the physical casement of ourselves 
is visible to human sense. The fingers move. But 
they do not move themselves. The ears cannot hear, 
they are the openings only, through which comes to 
the man the " music of the spheres.' ' The eyes can- 
not see. They are simply the windows through which 
we look. And when the man goes out of the body, 
the body is moveless and passionless as the clay. 
The fingers will not then move. The ears will never 
catch again " the harmony of sweet sounds.' ' And 
the rayless eyes will never look again in the face of 
God's clear sky. What is it then that moves, and 
hears, and sees? It is the man, not the fingers, the 
ears nor the eyes. The man is in the body, and every 
movement of the body is an expression of his presence, 
and the answer to his will. Now, what the man is 
to the body in a finite sense, God is to the universe 
in an Infinite sense. He fills the universe with His 
Infinite Will and Presence, and every activity of mat- 
ter is the expression of that Divine Presence. The 
revolutions of measureless constellations in space, the 
passage of a filmy cloud across the face of a summer's 
sky, or the opening of a flower, whose crimson cheeks 
blush as they receive the kisses of the sun, are alike 
the expressions of that indwelling Life and Thought. 



WORLD MAKING. 1 9 

Matter is inert. It has no power of movement. A 
particle at rest will remain so forever, unless acted 
upon by some power other than itself. In like man- 
ner, a particle in motion will never stop unless resisted. 
All impulse, activity, life come from this Indwelling 
and Almighty Spirit, to whom all matter is subordi- 
nate and obedient. And underlying all is a Divine 
Plan to which every force is subscribing, and every 
process has been adapted. 

In the light of these principles the definition of 
Science is easy. God has written on the material uni- 
verse the story of His activities and processes. In 
them He has told what He has done, and how. The 
story is in wonderful hieroglyphics. Science is sim- 
ply the translator of these hieroglyphics into human 
speech and finite understanding. The process of 
translation is a slow one. The story must be spelled 
out letter by letter as childish lips read. Science often 
stumbles. It makes many mistakes. But to-day cor- 
rects the errors of yesterday ; and this generation of 
men the errors of our fathers. Science is a growth, an 
evolution, and not a revelation. And its growth is 
very slow. For thousands of years men thought the 
Earth was flat, and that the Sun went over it and under 
it, leading the blazing retinue of stars. But by-and- 
by a great mind touched the mysterious interpretation, 
and chaos ended in light. The Earth was round, and 
revolved as one member of a system about the Sun. 
The falling apple was the commentator of the gospel 
of gravitation. And by such far-separated event$ a 



20 WORLD MAKING. 

higher interpretation has been reached ; and by such 
steps Science has climbed to sublime results. 

But in the translation of the gospel of Nature, Science 
is careful to impose no limitations on processes and 
operations. With men there was a yesterday — there 
will be a to-morrow. Time is a term we use to express 
the succession of our sensibilities. With the Infinite 
there is no succession — no yesterdays, no to-morrows. 
The past and future are alike with Him. In the sub- 
lime imagery of the Oriental poet, " A thousand years 
with Him are as one day, and one day as a thousand 
years. ' ' With men a thousand years are incomprehen- 
sible. But to multiply this period until we reach 
the babyhood of our race is overwhelming. And yet 
this is as nothing compared with that greater time, the 
records of which are held in the rocky storehouse of 
the Earth. Many persons suppose our globe to be a 
solid mass of rocks and soils. But this is not its con- 
dition. On the contrary it is a vast globular sea of 
gasses and molten matter, crusted over with a thin 
shell of rocks and soils of various thicknesses, in differ- 
ent parts of its surface, from a few miles in thickness 
to a few hundred miles at most. It is little thicker in 
proportion to the size of the Earth than the shell of an 
egg to the egg itself. And on this crust the busy 
world of life is moving, thankful for the terra forma 
beneath. 

I^et us ask the Geologist to tell us the story of this 
rocky crust. It is a wonderful one, and to comprehend 
it we must recognize two facts. The first is the great 
age of the Earth, Our Earth is indeed very old, The 



WORLD MAKING. 21 

pebbles we step upon in our path are older by millions 
of ages than the oldest of the human race. Over the 
stony forehead of every mountain crag hang the whit- 
ened locks of dateless epochs. The face of the conti- 
nents is furrowed and wrinkled with eras of changes. 
The Geologist deals with time as the Astronomer with 
distance. His units are epochs and his multiple meas- 
ureless periods. 

We must also recognize the universal application of 
natural laws, regardless of time or space. To illus- 
trate this : The high water, succeeding heavy showers, 
rushing down from the hillsides, often picks up frag- 
ments of organic forms — a piece of a bone, the tooth 
of a reptile, the toe-nail of a bird, or the bark or twig 
of a tree. These are carried along by the swift cur- 
rent. They become water-soaked and heavy ; and, 
finally, where the stream broadens and the current 
slackens, one by one they sink to the bottom. Mud 
has already been deposited there The water is, of 
course, loaded with sediment. From it gradually set- 
tle clay and marl and sand, which cover the frag- 
ments. The waters subside. The Sun's rays bake a 
crust upon the mud. In this sediment are certain 
sodas and phosphates that in time change the mud into 
stone. In this, therefore, the fragments are imbedded. 
They then undergo a change, called petrifaction, by 
which they are converted into stony substances, known 
as fossils. The usual process of petrifaction is very 
simple. Properly speaking, the fragments are not 
changed. The animal and vegetable substances decay, 
and the gasses are gradually eliminated through the 



22 WORLD MAKING. 

pores of the mud or stone. This leaves a mold there. 
Nature is said to hate a vacuum, and the forces go to 
work at once to fill this mold with mineral matter. 
The result of this is a reproduction in stone of the 
bone, the tooth, or the twig. 

The Geologist breaks open this stone and he finds 
the fossils thus formed. These he gives to the Com- 
parative Anatomist. Recognizing that all animal 
structures are builded upon one general plan, the 
Anatomist applies the known laws of organization 
to these fragments, and the result is the reconstruc- 
tion of the beings of which these fragments were a 
part. It is not meant by this that the individual 
beings are reproduced, but forms representing the 
type of the reptile, animal and bird. In like manner 
~the laws governing the organization of vegetable 
forms are applied to the fragments, and the forests 
rise into stately being. These processes have gone 
on for ages, and fossils have been thus formed and 
preserved. The Comparative Anatomists, from the 
fragments buried ages and ages ago, reconstruct 
the animal and vegetable forms then on the Earth, 
and the Past rises before us. We see the globe 
peopled as it was when these fossils were deposited. 
Reptiles of monstrous size and curious form dragged 
their unwieldy bodies through the bamboo bushes 
and canebrakes of ages long dead. Forests rise be- 
fore us with their interlacing branches and broad 
palm-like leaves, and, among the trees, vast animals 
climbed the sloping hills and bat-like birds shrieked 
in the vapor-laden air. A wonderful world, indeed ! 



WORLD MAKING. 23 

But we turn over another leaf in the stony book, and 
continue the marvelous story. Here is another world 
of wonders. The air was thick and murky with 
steam and poisonous gases. Living forms were in 
the sea. Only now and then some slow-breathing 
turtles stupidly wallowed in the muddy lagoons and 
fed upon the fishes left by the returning tides. He.re 
are still older beds of rocks. A strange world, peo- 
pled with wonderful sea-forms, is before us. Shell 
fishes were so abundant that their remains have made 
mountains, and the skeletons of microscopic infusoria 
have formed continents. We are in the burial-ground 
of the Past. Above these are the coal beds where 
great forests are entombed — aye, thousands upon 
thousands of forests. The gigantic trees, the gnarly 
shrubs, the mosses on the roots and limbs, the flags 
that fringed the sedgy banks of the lagoons — these 
found a common burial here. And, too, animal life 
was so abundant that in the Devonian and Silurian 
beds are whole strata of which there is scarcely one 
particle but was once alive. And as we descend to 
remoter periods the forms of life are seen to be more 
and more simple. Through this prodigality of forms 
we go back to the dawn of life. The metamorphic 
rocks contain no fossils. No living creatures existed 
on this globe when these rocks were deposited. The 
continents then glowed with heat, and the mountains 
burned like red torches in the murky air. And what 
is back of these ? 

Underlying all these formations, so rich with their 
fossil wealth, is a coarse-grained, unstratified rock. 



24 WORLD MAKING. 

This is the granite. It is the skeleton of the Earth, 
giving it stability and holding it in form. Whence 
came this granite? The Geologists tell us that it 
resulted from the cooling of the matter of the Earth. 
There was a time when this planet had no crust. It 
was once a shoreless sea of melted matter, " without 
form and void." Its tidal waves swept to and fro, 
and dashed against each other, sending their fiery 
spray far above the burning sea. Its heat was so 
great that what is now solid matter was liquid or gas- 
eous. By the operation of forces which will hereafter 
be explained, this molten mass radiated its heat into 
space and crusted over. This crust was granite. As 
countless ages went by this crust became cooler and 
thicker. Oceans of water were formed upon it. The 
waters softened the granite, and the waves and tides 
beat its surface down into sand and soil. Volcanic 
forces lifted continents out of the sea " and dry land 
appeared." Running streams wore down the hills 
and carried the fine materials into the valleys, thus 
forming the early sedimentary rocks. The high tem- 
perature of the water and rocks greatly aided their 
rapid denudation. As the crust and waters became 
still cooler, simple forms of life appeared in the pri- 
meval seas. For ages these almost nerveless beings 
were the only inhabitants of the Earth ; and to pro- 
tect these little creatures, each was covered with a 
shell. In time, as the temperature lowered, higher 
forms of life came in the sea and on the land. Geo- 
logic periods still passed. Higher and still higher 
forms of life came with each geologic age, until Man 



WORLD MAKING. 25 

came to crown the creative work, holding within 
himself a divine heirship. Such, in brief, are the 
changes during the unreckoned ages of our Earth's 
growth. And yet, all these inconceivable epochs are 
not a dot on the infinite plain of God's duration. 
With such lessons before it Science is careful to fix 
no limit in time to the operations of the Infinite. 

And as our Earth has grown so has grown all other 
worlds. The great law of compensation is every- 
where apparent, holding all things in a perfect bal- 
ance, and adapting every form of life to its environ- 
ments. 

Science imposes no limitations upon the operations 
of the Infinite Spirit in space. God is everywhere. 
11 If I make my bed in hell, He is there. If I take the 
wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost part of 
the sea ' ' of space, " lo ! He is there. ' ' Let us endeavor 
to reach towards the conception of this. We cannot 
comprehend it. We can only stand upon the thresh- 
old of the temple and gaze through the mists upon the 
Shekinah. It is not given to human eyes to see the 
vastness of the universe, nor to human minds to grasp 
the limitless. We can only approximate. Compari- 
sons may help us towards the end, but end there is 
none. Beyond and still beyond, forever and foreve^ 
is the formula. Science stimulates, it gives us step- 
ping-stones to climb upon, but does not attempt the 
ultimate. 

Astronomers have many methods of measuring dis- 
tances. For our present purpose the consideration of 
two of these will suffice. One of these is by means 



26 WORLD MAKING. 

of the parallax. This is a simple mathematical meas- 
urement, consisting of two angles and a base line ; 
and may be illustrated as follows : 

You wish to determine the height of the ceiling of 
some great cathedral. Suppose that height to be two 
hundred feet, more or less. The ceiling is too high for 
a measuring rod to reach it, and you cannot conven- 
iently climb to it and let down a line. Being unable to 
thus make the measurement you employ a simple par- 
allax. You fix upon some point on the ceiling as your 
unit ; from this you work as follows : Astronomers 
have an instrument which they use to ascertain the 
angles, or the inclination of lines of light, with some 
base line. In the supposed case the floor of the cathe- 
dral is the base. If you should plant the instrument 
immediately beneath the point on the ceiling the bar- 
rel of it would be perpendicular and no angle would 
result. It is evident that, to obtain an angle, you 
must carry the instrument to one side of that perpen- 
dicular line ; and from this position you direct the 
barrel of it towards the chosen point on the ceiling. 
Then, by examining a scale of figures on the instru- 
ment, you ascertain its exact inclination. This re- 
corded, you remove your instrument to the opposite 
side of the perpendicular line and determine the angle 
from that point in the same manner. The distance 
between the places where your instrument sat is the 
length of the base line. With the base line and both 
angles given, it is easy to ascertain the length of the 
converging lines. With the hypothenuse thus formed 
a moment's work will give the height of the ceiling. 



WORLD MAKING. 27 

This method of measurement is common in surveying, 
gunnery and navigation. On the surface of the Earth, 
of course, the process is the same as in measuring 
altitude. 

The Astronomer uses the parallax mainly for short 
distances. He wishes, for instance, to ascertain th e 
distance to the planet Uranus. Distance has dimin- 
ished that great body, to our vision, until it lies only 
a bright dot against the blue background of the sky. 
Should observers stand on each side of our Earth at 
opposite points, and determine their inclination of 
visual rays to that planet, to a line running along the 
equator of our Earth, and then take the diameter of 
the Earth as a base line, the distance to Uranus can be 
easily ascertained. It is not necessary that two ob- 
servers be engaged. One observer, taking his obser- 
vation at, say, six o'clock in the evening, determines 
that angle. The earth, in its revolution, will carry 
him 8,000 miles in twelve hours, and at the same hour 
in the morning he will be on the opposite side of the 
Earth in its relation to that planet. Thus the same ob- 
server secures a base line 8,000 miles long, or he may 
use any part of that line. In this, of course, allow- 
ance must be made for the orbital movement of the 
Earth and of Uranus. It is known that the Earth 
moves in its orbit about 1102 miles a minute. Any 
portion of this line of movement may be taken as a 
base. Observations, therefore, only a few hours apart, 
on objects in our Solar System, would give the obser- 
ver an enormous length of base line for a parallax. 

The measurement of distances by parallax is prin- 



28 WORLD MAKING. 

cipally employed within our Solar System. With a 
base line only equal in length to the diameter of our 
Earth no parallax could be determined on a star. The 
reason of this is that the distance is too great, com- 
pared with the length of the base line. Our instru- 
ments indicate with marvelous delicacy the slightest 
angle, but no instrument has yet been made that can 
measure an angle existing only in indeterminate deci- 
mals. Such at best would be the angles on the nearest 
fixed star. Astonomers, however, often employ por- 
tions of the path of the Earth in its journey around 
the Sun as a base. Extending this, and we have what 
is termed an Annual Parallax. Estimating the Earth's 
mean distance from the Sun at 93 millions of miles, it 
follows that the diameter of its orbit is twice that 
distance, or 186 millions of miles. With this long 
line it has been thought that a parallax has been indi- 
cated, on some of the nearest stars, of from the five 
thousandth to the thirty thousandth part of a second 
of arc. Subsequent observations, however, throw 
some doubt upon this claim. To show how well 
founded this doubt is let one fact illustrate. If, on 
the first day of January, a straight line were drawn 
from Vega in the west to Sirius in the east, touching 
our Earth, and again on the first day of July, when 
the Earth is half way around in its orbit, and 186 
millions of miles from its position in January, another 
line were drawn from the same stars, touching the 
Earth, such lines would not diverge sufficiently for us 
to detect. Human genius has not yet been able to 
construct an instrument which can measure these 



WORLD MAKING. 29 

angles. It is readily seen that this method of meas- 
urement is therefore limited in its application. 

There is, however, another unit of measurement, 
used where general results only are sought. In this 
unit there are two factors. One of these is light. 
What more wonderful agent ? It is everywhere. It 
is loaded with everything. It is the friend of Science. 
It makes the search for truth possible. It reveals 
beauty, aye, it makes beauty. It gives life. Vegeta- 
tion cannot grow without it. Animal forms would 
perish but for its presence. It brings to us the knowl- 
edge of other Suns and other Systems. By it the 
Astronomer measures the distances and weighs remote 
objects. He can determine the arcs of the orbits of 
distant Suns ; can tell their rate of speed, and can com- 
pute the periods of their revolutions. He can meas- 
ure, too, the temperature of comets, of planets and of 
Suns. He can dissolve their light in his prisms and 
ascertain the exact chemical composition of heavenly 
objects. It pours into the mind of man all the mar- 
velous secrets of space. 

The ray of light being so important was early and 
carefully studied. And while this study revealed 
many wonderful things about it, yet one of the first 
learned was, that light does not go instantaneously 
from one point in space to another. It consumes time 
in its journey. This was first suggested by the fact 
that, when the planet Jupiter was nearest to us in his 
orbit the eclipses of his moons took place eight min- 
utes sooner than the computed time ; while, when the 
planet was at his extreme distance from us, the eclipses 



30 WORLD MAKING. 

were eight minutes behind. After much study, and 
many experiments, it was shown that this discrepancy 
was caused by the time required for light to traverse the 
space, — reaching us nearly sixteen minutes sooner 
when the planet was nearest us than when on the 
opposite side of the Sun. Other experiments con- 
firmed this. And as the result of much research it 
has been definitely ascertained that light traverses 
space at the inconceivable speed of about 188 thousand 
miles in a second of time. The thought of such speed 
is bewildering. 

So great is this speed that light will go eight times 
around our Earth in a second of time. It will traverse 
the space between our Earth and the Moon in a second 
and a quarter ; and reach us from our Sun in eight 
minutes. This almost surpasses belief. The mind 
can hardly conceive of the awful void that lies between 
us and our Sun. Miles and miles stretch away until 
they are multiplied by millions again and again. 
And yet by the flight of light we are separated by 
only eight minutes. And while light can span this 
awful void in eight minutes it is almost four and one- 
half years reaching us from the nearest fixed star. 
Day and night its tireless wings fan the rippling ether. 
Almost 200 thousand miles are passed at every beat of 
the human heart. And yet that human heart must 
throb and throb through four and a half long years 
before that heralding ray shall deliver to us its secrets. 

And yet this is but a step compared with the longer 
journey that awaits us. We cannot use miles for our 
unit. They are too short. The diameter of our 



WORLD MAKING. 3 1 

Earth's orbit is as nothing. A greater unit must be 
sought. Our unit is the distance light can go in a 
year. We call this unit a " light year." And it 
means almost six quadrillions — the figure six with 
twelve ciphers following it — of miles. 

" Before we get too used to talking of light years, 
it may be well to try to get a notion what a light year 
really is. It means a journey that would take an ex- 
press more than 1 1 million years. It means a veloc- 
ity that the periphery of a gigantic fly-wheel one 
hundred miles in diameter could not keep up with, 
though it made five hundred revolutions in a second. 
It means a distance traversed in one second that sound 
will not pass over in ten days. And this is the unit 
for the quantities that modern astronomy deals with 
when treating of the distribution of stars in space. 
Sometimes one hears a cubic light year spoken of; that 
is, an imaginary cube, with each side a light year 
long. It was long after men saw how to measure the 
distance of the stars before they succeeded so as to feel 
much confidence in the results obtained ; but now the 
distances of a few stars are known with comparative 
accuracy and certainty, many measurements having 
been made that probably come within twenty or 
thirty per cent of the truth. 

"The nearest star that has been found is Alpha 
Centauri, with a distance of four and one-half light 
years. Probably next in order is a small star, numbered 
21, 185 in Lalande's catalogue. This is about six and 
one-half light years off, while 61 Cygni, the most fre- 
quently measured of any star, is about seven to seven 



32 WORLD MAKING. 

and one-half light years off. But let us take our near- 
est neighbor and try to see something of the isolation 
of our solar system in space. L,et us try to conceive 
of a sphere of which the Sun is center, with a radius 
of 4.50 light years, so placing our nearest stellar 
neighbor on its circumference — translated into the 
more familiar unit, its diameter is over fifty billion 
miles, and its cubic contents nearly three hundred 
and fifty cubic light years ; or seventy thousand sextill- 
ions (seven with forty ciphers) of cubic miles, for a cubic 
light year is rather more than two hundred sextillion 
cubic miles. Here is isolation indeed. The Sun, with 
all its vastness, does not fill one two hundred thousand 
trillionth (two with twenty-three ciphers) part of the 
sphere that has our nearest stellar neighbor on its sur- 
face. The gigantic volume of the Sun in such a space 
is like an isolated shot, containing but one-half of a 
cubic inch, immersed in the whole water of the sea, 
while a little speck less than the two-millionth of a 
cubic inch suspended in the three hundred and sev- 
enty-three trillion gallons of the sea would represent 
the Earth suspended in the sphere, the radius of which 
reaches only to the nearest star." 

Another factor, and really another unit, is the 
human eye. It has been stated that the eyes do not 
see. They are only the windows through which we 
look. And these windows are very small indeed. 
Physiologists have determined that the average size of 
the pupils of human eyes is a circle the one thirty- 
fourth part of an inch in diameter. This is the light- 
receiving capacity of the eye. And with this, unaided, 



WORLD MAKING. 33 

we can see a star of the sixth magnitude. This means 
that if the central star in the Centaur were pushed out 
into space twelve times as far as it now is, our unas- 
sisted vision would follow it to its home. It would 
then be so distant that light from it would consume 
about fifty-two years in reaching us. Knowing the 
rapidity of light, and the time of its flight from any 
star, it is easy to determine the distance. This is but 
one-half of the diameter of the vast sphere of space 
within our vision, and yet it is as nothing compared 
with what lies beyond. And yet, were it not for the 
inventive genius of man this would bound our knowl- 
edge of the universe. But invention has given us 
larger eyes and broadened our horizon. 

A German poet tells a story of Reason, who sat one 
morning on the mountain top, and wept, till her lus- 
trous eyes were red. And as she wept her sister Im- 
agination came by. Seeing the sister's grief she 
asked : " My sister, why weepest thou ? " — " There is 
cause enough," replied Reason. " I have been look- 
ing about me. My vision is so small ! I can see but 
little. And I have been trying to penetrate the great 
distance that lies beyond my narrow vision. And to 
think how much there is that I cannot see makes me 
weep." To whom Imagination answered : " My sis- 
ter, if thou canst not see far enough, make an eye 
that can see — an eye that shall be tireless, and tearless, 
and sleepless — an eye like God's eye." 

And the telescope was made. 

The power of the human eye to penetrate distance 
has already been stated. With a light-receiving 



34 WORLD MAKING. 

capacity of a circle only one thirty-fourth part of an 
inch in diameter we can see three hundred million 
times a million miles. A telescope is simply the 
enlargement of the eye. The lenses are so shaped that 
they gather in the rays of light over a greater field, 
and converge them into the eye. This gives to the 
eye, substantially, the power that it would have were 
its pupil as large as the converging lens. In a general 
way it may be said that the telescope increases our 
power of vision, as the number of circles, the size of the 
pupil of the eye, are contained within the larger circle 
of the glass or mirror. These small circles represent 
the number of eyes in the glass. And by multiplying 
the number of these in the glass by the number ot 
miles one eye can see, we determine the space-pene- 
trating power of any given telescope. Of course, there 
is some loss of power caused by imperfections of the 
glass or mirror. An allowance is made for this. In 
this way the power of instruments can be computed, 
and measurements be made with wonderful accuracy. 
From this it will be seen, for instance, that a glass 
twenty inches in diameter has sufficient power to bring 
within our field of vision stars so remote that a ray of 
light would be millions of years in reaching us. And 
if such be the power of a 20-inch glass, what measure- 
less depths can be sounded by the L,ick telescope with 
its 36-inch glass, or the great Reflector of L,ord Rosse 
with its mirror 76 inches in diameter.* 

*I can never forget the first time I stood in the presence of this great 
telescope, at Parsonstown, Ireland. My sense of humiliation was oppres- 
sive. Before me was a:i eye, which, next to God's eye, was the greatest— 
an eye that was almost almighty. What a sense of littleness came over 
me, no words can tell. 



WORLD MAKING. 35 

But this is not all. Suppose a telescope, with an 
object glass, not 76 inches in diameter, but a thousand 
times a thousand miles, with a space-penetrating power 
proportioned to its size. Were we to look through it to 
the full measure of its power, then in one instant of 
time be transported with our instrument to the limit of 
that vision, and look again in the same direct line ; 
and in another instant be transported in like manner 
and look again and again, forever and forever, we 
would then be no nearer the boundary of the Universe. 
Verily, end there is none. 

And such is the scale on which the Universe is 
builded. 



THE SOXG OF THE STARS. 



1 When the daylight fades in the evening shades, 

And the blue melts into the gray, 
We pitch our tents in the firmaments 

To guard the milky way. 
And we gather the broken sunbeams up 

That the day has left in its path, 
To kindle and build the glow, and gild 

What our sparkling camp-fire hath. 

With fond caresses we jewel the tresses 

Of the moon as she mounts the skies ; 
And the heavens we sprinkle with many a twinkle 

That leaps from our laughing eyes. 
But when the storm-cloud rolls his car 

In thunder across the sky, 
And the lightning dashes in fitful flashes, 

We hide till the storm goes by . 



36 WORLD MAKING. 

The sun is our master, and no disaster 

Can come to his night of rest ; 
For with constant eyes on the dim horizon 

We guard the east and the west. 
We sometimes find where the comet hides, 

And we frighten him out of his lair, 
Till he speeds through the night, like a fox in his flight, 

To his home in the great nowhere. 

We sometimes pause in our journey, because 

We see ourselves in the glass 
Of the silent lakes, or the sea, that takes 

Our pictures as we pass. 
But when the daylight quivers and breaks, 

And the gray melts into the blue, 
The tears we shed o'er our fallen dead 

Are found in the morning dew." 



THE REALM OF LITTLENESS. 

Another thing Science does not overlook. It is, that 
to the Infinite, there is no difference in magnitude. 
The dust-grain and the Constellation of Suns are the 
same when measured by the Infinite. And there be- 
ing no difference, God works by the same laws every- 
where and upon every scale. The law that shapes 
the tear-drop on a baby's cheek gives roundness to 
the worlds. The law that governs the whirlpool in 
the aperture of a funnel makes the Worlds and Suns 
revolve. The law that controls the whirlwind, which 
picks up the clouds of dust and swirls their myriads 
of particles round in apparent irregularity of motion, 
and yet makes each dust-grain run in geometric 
lines, and in a pathway all its own ; that same law 
governs the Constellations and Systems that people 
the realms of space. These laws are the lines along 
which the Infinite Activities run. They are all about 
us. Astronomers deal with vast distances and awful 
magnitudes, and we may think that in such only the 
laws regulate. Not them alone. There is an infinity 01 
littleness as there is an infinity of greatness. Sir 
Robert Ball tells us, " The microscope teaches us that 
there are animals so minute that if a thousand of them 
were ranged abreast they would easily swim, without 



38 WORLD MAKING. 

being thrown out of line, through the eye of the fin- 
est cambric needle. Each of these minute creatures 
is a highly organized number of particles, capable of 
moving about, of finding and devouring food, and be- 
having in all other respects as becomes an animal as 
distinguished from an unorganized piece of matter. 
The mind is incapable of realizing the structure of 
these little creatures, and of fully appreciating their 
marvelous adaptation to the life they are destined to 
lead." 

Wonderful as are such creatures, we cannot stop 
with them. If we increase sufficiently the power of 
our glass, we will find creatures beside which these 
are giants — creatures so small that colonies of them 
find homes upon a mote that floats in a summer's sun- 
beam. Microscopic insect life is all about us. Look 
at the filmy wings of one of these with instruments of 
greater power. The fairy fabric is so delicate that 
through it the sunlight comes and goes with scarcely 
a reflection or refraction of a ray. Observe the deli- 
cate tracery of veins and arteries there. The blood is 
driven through them by the beating of that little 
heart. Each microscopic drop in those little veins is 
the home of myriads of living forms. And, doubt- 
less, each drop of blood in the veins of each of these 
is the home of others ; and so on and on forever. 
The infinite littleness meets us here as the. infinite 
greatness yonder. And such are the wonderful ex- 
tremes ! When we look upon the vastness of the uni- 
verse, our vision is limited only by the power of the 
telescope through which we look. So our vision of the 



WORLD MAKING. 39 

littleness of things is limited only by the power of the 
microscope we use. On either hand is infinity.* 

Nor does Science stop here. The microscope has 
revealed the existence of what may be termed Molec- 
ular Life in inanimate matter. Everything is in 
motion. Not an atom anywhere but is quivering and 
throbbing with energy. Each minute molecule is 
active. Growth, decay, crystallization, organization, 
chemical attraction and repulsion, magnetic and elec- 
tric influences, heat, light, these suffer no particle of 
matter to rest. The quivering vibrations go every- 
where. The densest matter as well as the rarest feels 
these forces and responds with answering energy. 
These motions touch our senses in the rare matter — in 
gases and in the atmosphere. But w r e think that the 
solids — the diamonds, for instance — are composed of 
multitudes of molecules clustered together in an indi- 
vidual and solid mass. This, however, is incorrect, 
as shown by the recent researches of Sir Robert Ball. 
He asserts that were the sensibility of our eyes in- 
creased so as to make them a few million times more 
powerful, it w T ould be seen that the diamond atoms, 
which form the perfect gem, when aggregated in suffi- 
cient myriads, are each in a condition of rapid move- 
ment of the most complex description. 

Each molecule would be seen swinging to and fro 
with the utmost violence among the neighboring 



*Sotne small microscopists, who limit their conceptions of Nature to the 
narrow bounds of their own experience and observation, have questioned 
the statements in the text. Analogy clearly confirms them. To such ob- 
jectors I would say, Procure a better instrument. This is all the reply they 
deserve. 



40 WORLD MAKING. 

molecules, and quivering from the shocks it receives 
from encounters with other molecules, which occur 
millions of times in each second. The hardness and 
impenetrability so characteristic would at first sight 
seem to refute the supposition that it is no more than 
a cluster of rapidly moving particles ; but the well- 
known impenetrability of the gem arises from the 
fact that, when attempt is made to press a steel 
point into a stone, it fails, because the rapidly mov- 
ing molecules of the stone batter the metal with such 
extraordinary vehemence that they refuse to allow it 
to penetrate, or even to mark the crystallized surface. 

When glass is cut with a diamond, the edge, which 
seems so hard, is really composed of rapidly moving 
atoms. The glass which is cut is also merely a mass 
of moving molecules, and what seems to happen is 
that as the diamond is pressed forward its several 
particles, by their superior vigor, drive the little par- 
ticles of glass out of the way. 

In the presence of this Universe of Littleness we 
see little exaggeration in the picture of the poet : 

" I tell thee that those living things 
To whom the fragile blade of grass 

That springeth in the morn 

And perisheth ere noon 

Is an unbounded world — 
I tell thee that those viewless beings 
Whose mansion is the smallest particle 

Of the impassive atmosphere — 

Think, feel and love like man ; 
That their affections and antipathies, 

Like his, produce the laws 



World making. 41 

Ruling their moral state ; 
And the minutest throb 
That through their frame diffuses 
The slightest, faintest motion, 
Is fixed and indispensable 
As the majestic laws 
That rule you rolling orbs." 



THE INSTRUriENTS WE USE. 

It seems necessary for the understanding of the 
general reader, that a brief description be given of the 
telescope and the spectroscope, so often spoken of in 
these pages. As these instruments have to do with 
Light, it is essential that we have some notion of what 
Light is and how it behaves. 

It was once supposed that Light was corpuscular, 
that is, that it was composed of minute particles of 
matter that were, by some force, pushed through 
space. Just how this was done the philosophers did 
not know. Each theory they adopted was attended 
with so many objections that it was soon abandoned, 
to be replaced by others, which in turn shared the 
same fate. By a series of experiments, the history of 
which is of interest to the student, it has been deter- 
mined that Light consists in undulations or waves of 
the ether. These waves are mathematically minute 
and their velocit}^ marvelously rapid. The ether is a 
rarefied condition of matter filling the spaces between 
denser particles. No matter is solid. We are accus- 
tomed to think and speak of iron as solid. To our 
rough senses it seems so. Yet Professor Faraday tells 
us that the particles of solid matter in a cube of iron 
are no nearer together in proportion to their size than 
men would be, if only one man were standing on each 
square mile of England. A grain of musk will scent 



44 WORLD MAKING. 

the air blown through a room for fifty years so our 
senses can detect it. During all this time it is giving 
parts of itself into the air,' and yet when this has been 
going on a half century we can detect no diminution 
of the musk. 

As has been said, the undulations of L,ight in this 
ether are minute and rapid. The undulations suc- 
ceed each other like the waves of the sea. It has 
been ascertained that the human eye is fitted to re- 
ceive these waves when the number, beating upon it, 
shall be 396 trillions in each second of time. Until 
that number reaches the eye, it can perceive no light. 
We smite a cube of iron a succession of blows. The 
ether between the solid particles is put in motion. 
This motion becomes more rapid at each blow. The 
iron becomes hot. But when the vibrations have 
increased to 396 trillions a second, the iron will glow 
with a dull red lustre. It now has a color. If we 
increase the number of vibrations, the iron takes all 
the colors of the spectrum. Color is in the eye, and 
depends upon the number of undulations in a given 
time. When the number of these are between 396 
trillions and 470 trillions a second the color in the 
eye is red. When between 470 trillions and 510 trill- 
ions it is orange. Between 510 trillions and 550 
trillions it is yellow. From that number to 610 trill- 
ions it is green ; and then to 658 trillions it is blue. 
Between 658 trillions and 700 trillions the color is 
indigo ; and from this number to 765 trillions is the 
realm of the violet. Between these several limits are 
every shade and tone of the respective colors. When 



WORLD MAKING. 45 

the number of undulations exceed 765 trillions a sec- 
ond, the eye can discern no light. That number is 
the limit. Does light exist beyond ? Certainly. 
But eyes to see it must be differently constituted from 
our own. Eyes celestial may behold it. At the 
Transfiguration there was a light brighter than the 
Sun. The persecutor on his way to Damascus beheld 
such a light. On Raphael's masterful canvas in the 
Vatican is a light richer than the morning's radiance 
or the tearful depths of noon. How much of beauty 
there may be in this unknown realm above our color 
line is known only to beings of deeper vision than 
ours. 

Below 396 trillions of vibrations a second no light is 
revealed to our eyes. In this lower realm the heat 
waves mainly exist. Heat differs from light in no 
essential particular except in the number of waves. 
In this realm, too, are mainly the electric forces. 
Above 765 trillions of waves a second is darkness to 
us. But in this upper realm are the solar beams that 
are necessary for the growth of plants. By a wonder- 
ful analysis, the solar beams decompose the gases 
floating in the air, and when decomposed they are 
taken up by the thousands of little mouths on the sur- 
faces of the upturned leaves, and go into the circula- 
tion of the plant or tree. These gases are the food, 
and the action of the solar beams, the digestive process. 
All vegetables grow thus. These beams are also used 
in photography. By their rapid vibrations they shake 
asunder the molecules of silver salts in the gelatine 
film of the prepared plate, as the waves of the ocean, 



46 WORLD MAKING. 

beating against the shores, wear away the cliff. These 
beams, impinging on a single point of the plate, de- 
compose the chemicals and engrave the image. As 
the beams, active in photography, are mainly invisible 
to us, it follows that any star emitting such beams 
could not be seen by us. And this is true of many 
stars. The photograph plate reveals many stars never 
seen by human eyes. 

Several years ago a congress of astronomers from 
every country met in Paris and made plans for pho- 
tographing the sky. The heavens were divided into 
sections so accurately that the several sections, when 
photographed, could be joined together as are joined 
parts of a map. To each astronomer was assigned 
one of these sections. Up to that time we had really 
seen less than 23 million stars. But to these the pho- 
tograph has added, in the same field of the sky, more 
than 164 millions. These, though within our field of 
telescopic vision, are invisible on account of their pecu- 
liar light. They send out waves above our line of 
vision. Celestial photography is one of the triumphs 
of invention, and to it we confidently look for revela- 
tions as yet undreamed. 

As we have seen, color depends upon the number of 
ether waves received by the eye. We burn hydrogen, 
or iron, or any other substance, and ascertain the exact 
color of the blaze. This is not difficult. The same 
substance will always have a blaze of the same color. 
Now we put the larger end of a small telescope through 
the curtain of a darkened room, and gather the rays 
from a sun, or planet, or comet, and conduct them into 



WORLD MAKING. 47 

the darkened room through the instrument, and con- 
centrate them through the small end upon a prism — 
a simple three-cornered piece of glass. The rays pass 
through this prism and to another, so placed as to 
receive them, and still another and another, and from 
the last one the light is thrown upon a white screen. 
The prisms have dissolved the rays and separated 
them, and thrown the scattered mass upon the screen. 
Now by critically examining the colored lines upon 
the screen, and knowing the particular color any burn- 
ing substance gives off, the composition of the Sun or 
planet can be determined. This is spectrum analy- 
sis. The spectroscope is an instrument delicately 
adjusted to measure the number of rays a second. 
This is done on the same principle. Its practical oper- 
ation, however, is a little more complicated and deli- 
cate. Like many other appliances of the Astronomer, 
it is of little value in unskilled hancte. 

The telescopes are adapted for more popular uses. 
They are of two general kinds. The reflector has a 
concave mirror at the bottom of the tube, which is so 
placed as to receive the image of any celestial object 
and reflect it to a smaller mirror at the side and near 
the top of the tube. This image is looked at by the 
observer through an eye-piece, which may be made to 
magnify any number of diameters desired. This is 
fixed in the opposite side of the tube from the small 
mirror. The largest reflector is that of Lord Rosse, 
the mirror of which weighs more than six tons. The 
tube or barrel, with its appurtenances, weighs seven 




THE GREAT PARIS REFLECTOR, 



WORLD MAKING. 49 

tons more. It is suspended between two massive 
stone walls, which are deep-bedded in the ground. 

The refracting telescope has a lens, usually at the 
top of the tube, which acts as a multiple prism to 
gather in the rays of light and bend them to one point 
at the bottom of the tube. Here is placed a concave 
lens which receives the converging rays and passes 
them, in parallel lines, to the eye, which receives them 
through an eye-piece, which, like the other, may be 
made to magnify to any desired degree. This eye- 
piece is placed at the bottom of the tube, and the ob- 
server looks through" the lenses. Field glasses and 
opera glasses are made on this principle. The largest 
refractor now in use is the Lick, belonging to the 
Iceland Stanford University in California. Its lens is 
36 inches in diameter. One is now being made for 
the Chicago University which will have a lens with a 
working diameter of 40 inches. This will have a 
power nearly twice that of the Lick telescope. It will 
have a greater practical power than Lord Rosse's re- 
flector. The loss of light is very much more in a re- 
flector than in a refractor. The difficulty in making 
lenses increases with the size. The glass must be of 
uniform quality and density, and so regular that it 
does not vary the hundredth part of the diameter of a 
hair. Hundreds of glasses are sometimes cast before 
one can be accepted. 

These great instruments must be mounted with the 
highest engineering skill. They must be away from 
railways and factories, and their foundations must be 
sunk deep in the ground. The slightest vibration 



50 WORLD MAKING. 

will destroy their usefulness. They are, also, pro- 
vided with delicate clock-work, so adjusted as to move 
the tube from east to west exactly as rapidly, and with 
a motion as steady, as the Earth revolves. Thus, when 
directed to a star, the clock holds the star in view as 
long as desired. This is a chronometer which is not 
affected by heat or cold. 

Stars, and planets and comets are followed in their 
sublime flights by these great instruments, as Hope 
and Faith follow the mysterious procession of souls 
departed. The song of this following is sung by the 
poet in his procession of the stars and souls. 

"I stood on the open casement, 

And looked upon the night, 
And saw the westward-going stars 

Pass slowly out of sight. 
Slowly the bright procession 

Went down the gleaming arch, 
And my soul discerned the music 

Of the long triumphal march ; 
Till the great celestial army, 

Stretching far beyond the poles, 
Became the eternal symbol 

Of the mighty march of souls. 
And some were bright in beauty, 

And some were faint and small, 
But these might be, in their great height, 

The noblest of them all. 

The stars and the mailed moon, 
Though they seem to fade and die, 

Still sweep in their embattled lines 
An endless reach of sky. 

And though the hills of Death 



WORLD MAKING. 5 1 

May hide the bright array, 
The marshalled brotherhood of souls 

Still keeps its onward way. 
Upward, forever upward, 

I see their march sublime, 
And hear the glorious music 

Of the conquerors of time. 
And long let me remember 

That the palest, fainting one 
May to diviner vision be 

A bright and shining Sun." 



OUR SOLAR SYSTEM. 

What is known as the Solar System is made up of 
the Sun, of eight planets with their satellites, of sev- 
eral hundred planetoids, and numerous bodies of 
little density and erratic movements, called comets. 
These planets are of various sizes, and revolve around 
the Sun at various distances. They are all, substan- 
tially, upon the same plane, though never all upon 
the same side of the Sun. To illustrate this, let us 
suppose some figure on the center of a pond of ice. 
Around this are skaters at various distances, all going 
the same way, and those nearest the center moving at 
a slightly higher rate of speed than those farther out. 
It is readily seen that the ones nearest the figure will 
go around many times while the outermost ones go 
once around. And the result of these movements 
must be that the skaters are scattered about, and to 
all get in line on the same side would be, practically, 
a mathematical impossibility. 

Let us suppose again, that on this ice is a ball six 
feet in diameter. This may represent the Sun. At 
two hundred feet away a small current would represent, 
substantially, the size of Mercury, and his distance 
from the Sun. A large gooseberry at four hundred 
feet away would be Venus ; and the Earth, on the 
same scale, would be a small cherry at a distance 
from the Sun of eight hundred feet. At more than 




RELATIVE SIZES AND THE ORBITS OF THE PLANETS. 



WORLD MAKING. 55 

fifteen hundred feet a small cranberry would fitly 
represent Mars ; while the Asteroids a half mile dis- 
tant would be but small pin's heads. A small melon 
would represent Jupiter more than a mile distant. 
Saturn two miles away would be but a large orange. 
A small peach more than four miles from the ball 
would represent Uranus, and a common peach the 
far-away Neptune, more than eight miles from the 
central globe. This, in common language, shows the 
comparative distances and sizes of the planets that 
circle around our Sun. 

THK SUN. 

Our Sun, the magnitude of which was mentioned 
in a former chapter, is the center of this great family 
of planets. He is so large that he outweighs, by al- 
most eight hundred times, the combined weight of 
all the bodies that circle around him. This immense 
weight gives him such an attractive power as to make 
him an easy ruler of the planetary system. But his 
weight is not, by any means, the most important 
characteristic that he possesses. He is the source of 
light and heat. He floods the vast space with light, 
making moons to blush, and planets to shine; giving 
to each its day and night. He pours out his wealth 
of heat that warms the planets, and gives us Spring 
with its promises and Summer with its flowers. The 
amount of heat given off by the Sun continually is 
sufficient to melt a solid block of ice equal to 
two hundred and eighty-eight cubic miles each sec- 
ond of time. He, too, sends out magnetism that 



56 WOKXD MAKING. 

thrills the planets with life and energy. By his at- 
traction he sways the worlds, and hurls the comets 
in their stupendous journeys ; and by his magnetic 
influences ties the whole system to him in a respon- 
sive unity. He is a body of molten matter, his tem- 
perature rising into the thousands of degrees. His 
revolution upon his axis causes immense waves to 
dash over his shoreless surface ; and to his chemical 
and magnetic forces every planet responds. Great 
convulsions occur on his surface, and the force of his 
tidal waves is felt through the Solar System. When 
extraordinary convulsions occur, the magnetic forces 
are so disturbed that streaming auroras will light 
the sky of every planet, and blaze in the path of 
every comet. Professor Proctor says : " Mercury and 
Venus, so much nearer the Sun than we, respond 
more swiftly and more distinctly to the solar mag- 
netic influences. Beyond our Earth, and be}^ond the 
orbit of Mars, the magnetic impulses speed with the 
velocity of light. The vast globe of Jupiter is thrilled 
from pole to pole as the magnetic waves roll upon it ; 
then Saturn feels the shock ; then the vast distances 
beyond in which lie Uranus and Neptune are swept 
with the ever-lessening, yet ever- widening disturb- 
ance-wave. Who shall say what outer planets it 
then seeks ? or who, looking back upon the course 
over which it has traveled, shall say that planets 
alone have felt its effects ? Meteoric and cometic sys- 
tems have been visited by the great magnetic wave, 
and upon the dispersed members of the one, and the 
subtle structure of the other, effects even more im- 



WORLD MAKING. 57 

portant may have been produced than those striking 
phenomena which characterize the progress of terres- 
trial or planetary magnetic storms.' ' 

In recent years marvelous progress has been made 
in the study of the Sun. The telescope gathers in the 
light and blots out the distance. But many of the 
real secrets of the Sun and stars were not given us 
through this. Wonderful as were the revelations 
made by the telescope, it remained for the spectro- 
scope to rend the veil that had hidden from us the 
inner temple of the skies. The spectroscope has been 
called the light-sifter. By it the Astronomer can ana- 
lyze the light, and can thereby determine the charac- 
ter, condition and composition of distant orbs and 
systems. With his prisms he sifts and sorts the light 
waves, and classifies them. This is one of the sub- 
limest triumphs of modern science. We can as clearly 
determine, by spectrum analysis, the composition of 
suns and worlds and comets as we can by terrestrial 
chemistry the soils of our gardens. The spectroscope 
aids in another way. Unless a heavenly body shall 
run at right angles across our line of vision, the tele- 
scope cannot reveal its rate of speed. And it has been 
found frequently very difficult, even then, to estimate 
correctly. But if the object be running directly to- 
ward the observer or away from him in the exact line 
of his vision, or crossing that line at any angle, the 
spectroscope can measure its speed and determine its 
angle. Many a magnificent hypothesis has been 
overthrown, and many a one confirmed by the spec- 
troscope. 



58 WORLD MAKING. 

Another thing which has greatly aided the astrono- 
mer is celestial photography. This is particular^ 
helpful in his study of the Sun. The light from the 
Sun is so intense that instantaneous photographs can 
by taken of him, or of any portion of his surface. His 
light is so intense that observers have found it difficult 
to make sketches of him, or to examine any portion 
of his surface. But the photographic process gives an 
instantaneous and exact picture. There is no liability 
of error in judgment. The lights and shadows are in 
their places, and the relative measurements are cor- 
rect. These tell wonderful stories of the fiery Sun in 
all its frightful energy. At times great continental 
masses of hardened crust are broken into fragments 
by indescribable convulsions, which masses plunge 
back into the melted matter, making fiery whirlpools, 
from whose awful vortexes the flames ascend thou- 
sands of miles. Waves of heat go circling out whose 
intensity is felt by every planet. The atmosphere of 
the Sun burns and glows. Great cyclones sweep over 
its surface, and billowy clouds tumble over each other 
like measureless volumes of flame. Then come long 
periods of comparative repose. But for the photo- 
graphs we should have but imperfect notions of the 
behavior of the Sun. 

From what source comes the supply that keeps up 
the heat of the Sun ? If left to itself its heat would 
be exhausted in about a hundred thousand years. 
Condensation and chemical combustion would keep 
up its heat until its own heat-producing matter should 
be consumed. But the supply comes mainly from 



WOKI.D MAKING. 59 

without. It will be shown hereafter that our system 
is filled with unabsorbed, nebulous matter. This mat- 
ter is mainly in the form of meteoric bodies and com- 
etic bodies. Myriads of the meteoric bodies fall into 
the atmosphere of the Earth every year, and count- 
less millions into the Sun. The Sun's attraction is 
so great, and the orbits of the meteoric belts so irreg- 
ular and elliptical, that continuous streams of these 
bodies are often poured into the Sun for weeks and 
months together. And the comets are carriers of 
these supplies. Far out beyond the immense orbit of 
Neptune are the inter-solar spaces. These spaces are 
the play-grounds of many of our comets. From the 
unabsorbed nebulous matter there they gather their 
volume. And loaded by the countless meteors, of 
which their bodies are composed, the comets carry 
these bodies away in their wonderful journeys to the 
Sun. These are disengaged or dropped to a large 
extent as the comets pass. These largely find their 
way into the Sun. And when these are poured into 
the Sun many mighty cosmic convulsions occur. 

Such is the wonderful body that controls our plan- 
etary system. 

THE PLANETS. 

Passing outward from the Sun, let us seek an ac- 
quaintance with the Planets and their attending Sat- 
ellites. 

A few years ago one of our observers, during a 
total eclipse of the Sun, saw between the orbit of 
Mercury and the Sun what he thought to be a small 



60 WORLD MAKING. 

planet. He named it Vulcan. The discovery has 
never been confirmed. It is possible that a planet 
may be there, but Astronomers generally think its ex- 
istence doubtful. But, considering its nearness to the 
Sun, and the difficulty of making any observation 
there ; and the further fact, that a planet there must 
be so small that his influence on the Sun or on Mer- 
cury would be so inconsiderable that it could not be 
calculated, it is certainly very unsafe to deny its exist- 
ence. If a planet be there, our improved telescopes 
and our photographic instruments will very soon con- 
firm its existence. It cannot long remain a stranger. 

mercury. 

The nearest known planet to the Sun is Mercury. 
His distance from the Sun varies between very wide 
limits owing to the eccentricity of his orbit. The 
mean distance is about 36 millions of miles. He 
goes around the Sun in a few minutes less than 
eighty-eight of our days. His year is therefore less 
than three of our months in length. If he has sea- 
sons like our Earth, they must be, severally, about 
three weeks long. His diameter is little more than 
one-third that of our Earth. He shines with a white 
light nearly as bright as Sirius. He is always seen near 
the horizon. He has phases like our Moon. No sat- 
ellite of Mercury has yet been discovered. Though 
the Sun's rays, when the planet is nearest to that 
body, are thirty-seven times as intense as on the 
Earth, yet that planet has an average temperature of 
many hundred degrees colder than our coldest winters. 



WORM) MAKING. 6 I 

Mercury is a dead world. There are found no 
traces of an atmosphere nor of vapor there. If either 
exist certainly the spectroscope would reveal it. 
There being no atmosphere to retain the heat, or to 
radiate or reflect it, the heat beams do not warm the 
planet, but readily pass away into space. This law is 
illustrated by mountain elevations on our own planet. 
In India, where the full heat of the tropical Sun is 
poured upon the snowy summits of the Himalayas, 
the air is colder than our bitterest midwinter. The 
reason of this is that the air is so cold and dry, that it 
cannot retain the heat poured upon it. An atmos- 
phere loaded with vapor is a conservator of heat. 
Without it heat readily radiates; space, therefore, is 
immeasurably cold. There are other reasons for the 
low temperature of Mercury which will be explained 
when we discuss the death of worlds. 

VENUS. 

At a mean distance of about 67 millions of miles 
from the Sun is Venus — the Goddess of Beauty. 
She is nearly the size of our Earth, and goes 
around the Sun in two hundred and twenty-five 
of our days. Like Mercury, she is moonless. She is 
the brightest of all the planets, and may frequently 
be seen at midday in a clear sky. She is properly 
named, for she is the most beautiful object in the 
heavens, to our eyes. Jupiter and Saturn pursue 
their stately courses among the stars. The sweeping 
constellations pour their glories on us. The soft light 
of the Pleiades, and the blaze of Orion, with its rich 



62 WORLD MAKING. 

and gorgeous belt, add unutterable splendor to the 
sky. But amid them all, the star bf the morning and 
of the evening sheds her soft radiance upon the ter- 
restrial landscapes, and courts our fancies with her 
bewitching smiles. The merest tyro in astronomy 
can name her among the thousands of stars, as the 
one altogether lovely. 

Venus has an atmosphere, which the spectrum 
shows to be much like our own in composition. The 
spectrum, too, shows aqueous vapors and clouds. She 
has seasons, too, but quite different from ours, as her 
axis is said to be inclined only fifteen degrees to the 
plane of her orbit. Of this, however, there is doubt. 
De Vico has, with a good show, computed her incli- 
nation at fifty-five degrees. If this calculation be cor- 
rect, then her seasons do not greatly differ from our 
own. Venus has been the arena of much speculation. 
Poets have clothed her with many fancies ; and even 
scientific men have invested her with a romantic char- 
acter. Dr. Whewell, several years ago, by a curious 
analysis of her atmosphere, put -forth the claim that 
it was filled with microscopic animalcules, with sili- 
cious coverings; and he concluded that these were the 
only inhabitants of the planet. Later discoveries, 
however, make it very probable that the planet is the 
home of living forms of a high organization. The 
identity of her substance with the substance of our 
Earth, her climatic conditions, and her relation to the 
Sun, all bear in favor of this claim. Proctor clearly 
gives the belief of careful observers when he says : 
" On the whole, the evidence points very strongly tq 



WORLD MAKING. 63 

Venus as the abode of living creatures not unlike the 
inhabitants of Earth. I can see nothing which can 
reasonably be held to point to an opposite conclusion.'' 

THE EARTH. 

After leaving Venus, in our journey from the Sun, 
the next planet is our Earth. As is familiarly known, 
the Earth makes its journey around the Sun in a little 
more than three hundred and sixty-five days, at a 
mean distance of about ninety-three millions of miles. 
In this journey it carries us through space more than 
eleven hundred miles each minute of time. The 
Earth has two principal motions. One in its orbit 
around the Sun, and the other on its axis. The revo- 
lution in his orbit is steadily shortening. In other 
words, our year is less in length than formerly. From 
this it is argued that our Earth, and probably all the 
planets, are gradually approaching the Sun. The 
period of the Earth's revolution on its axis is length- 
ening. The tides of the oceans act as brakes to 
deaden or retard the motion of the Earth. Mr. 
Adams has clearly shown that, under the influence of 
the Moon's attraction on our oceans, that the Earth's 
rotation is gradually, but certainly, diminishing; and 
he concludes that sometime the Earth will so rotate 
as to always keep the same side turned towards the 
Moon as the Moon does now to us. Of this result 
there can be little doubt. 

THE MOON. 

As has been said, the Earth is accompanied, in its 
journey around the Sun, by a lesser world — the Moon. 



64 WORLD MAKING. 

She goes around the Earth once in about twenty-nine 
and one-half days, and revolves upon her axis in pre- 
cisely the same length of time. Hence, she always 
presents the same side to us. Her mean distance from 
the Earth is two hundred and forty thousand miles. 
She has a diameter of about two thousand miles, and 
shines only with a reflected light. 

She is a dead world. She has no atmosphere, no 
water, and no sky. Any portion of her surface, 
looked at through a telescope of great power, is a 
picture of awful and indescribable desolation. No 
tree, no flower, no life, no beauty. The cold pinna- 
cles and shafts of her mountains ; the dark abysses of 
her extinct .volcanoes ; the rugged and sharp outline 
of her plains ; the angular roughness of her valleys 
and hills, unworn by water and unsoftened by air or 
clouds, these make a picture, which, when once seen, 
the memory of it will never pass away. She is colder, 
by thousands of degrees, than the midwinter of Lap- 
land. What has been said of airless Mercury applies 
to the Moon. Her day is equal to almost fifteen ot 
our days. Yet with the Sun pouring his beams stead- 
ily upon one side of her the temperature is not percep- 
tibly increased. Lord Rosse's six-foot reflector could 
barely register a difference between her noon-day and 
midnight. The fires within her have become extinct 
and the surface, therefore, gets no radiation from that 
source. 

Has she ever been the home of life ? There can be 
little doubt of it. Oceans of water must have once 
been on her surface. Her extinct volcanoes are proof 



WORLD MAKING. 65 

of this. Water is necessary for volcanic action ; and 
action on such a magnitude must have required water 
in no inconsiderable amounts. The recent revelations 
of the spectroscope prove clearly that all celestial 
bodies are similarly constituted, and are identical in 
chemical composition. This being true, it is easy to 
comprehend that the same laws and forces with which 
we are familiar on this planet are active, or have been 
active, on other worlds, in a similar way. The gener- 
ally accepted theory of volcanic action is that the 
interior of the Earth, as once of the Moon, is a reser- 
voir of melted matter, endowed with a remarkable 
degree of heat. That water on the surface soaks 
down through the crust until it comes in contact with 
the heated rocks beneath, when it is converted into 
steam and gas, which, expanding, shake continents 
and open craters for vent. Sufficient amounts of 
water could not have existed on the Moon, for such 
purposes, without an atmosphere. The molten mass, 
once in the interior of the Moon, long ago became 
cold and solidified, and volcanic action ceased. What 
has become of the oceans once on the Moon, and the 
atmosphere that once clothed her as with a garment ? 
In the answer to this question no fewer than five the- 
ories have been advocated from time to time. Some 
Astronomers have thought that, as the Moon has one 
invisible side to us, that the air and water have been 
driven there. This, however, is untenable. We see 
so much of the Moon's surface during her librations, 
that if air and water exist on the other side we 
could detect the vapor. Another theory has been that 



66 WORLD MAKING. 

some passing comet carried the air and water away. 
From what we know of the constitution of comets, 
this could not have been done. Another theory that 
once had some show of reason in it, held that the in- 
tense cold has solidified the air and water. This is now 
past belief, as the spectroscope would reveal the exist- 
ence of air and water in any form. * There remains two 
other theories. One is, that the air and water have been 
drawn into great cavities and reservoirs, and absorbed 
in the porous structure of the interior, and the other 
is, that, by reason of the extreme cold, the compounds 
have been dissolved and the gases which, in combina- 
tion, made the air and water, have been set at lib- 
erty, or combined with other gases to form other sub- 
stances, or have been possibly driven off into space to 
other worlds. Either of these theories sufficiently 
explain the problem. That the water and air have 
been absorbed in the interior is not only possible, but, 
considering the low specific gravity of the Moon, is 
very probable. And that these compounds have been 
dissolved have many facts lending probability to the 
theory. All chemists know that extreme cold has the 
same disorganizing effect as extreme heat. And the 
influence of extreme heat on all compounds is too 
familiar to need discussion. 

Such is the mild, inconstant Moon, in the name of 
which lovers make their vows. 

MARS. 

The first planet outside the orbit of our Earth is 



* Of course it is possible to congeal all gases. Hydrogen alone has 
resisted so far. But this would yield to a temperature far higher than 
that known to exist on the Moou, 



WORLD MAKING. 67 , 

Mars. lie is at a mean distance from the Sun or 
about 141 millions of miles. He makes his long jour- 
ney around that center in a little less than two of our 
years. His diameter is but little more than one-ball 
the diameter of our Earth. He is attended by two 
moons of very diminutive size. The outer one has a 
diameter of only six and one- fourth miles, and goes 
around the planet in about thirty hours. The inner 
one is but one mile more in diameter and makes a 
revolution around the primary in a little over seven 
hours. The rate of speed of the inner moon is mar- 
velous. These moons are so small they can be seen 
only by the giant telescopes. They are interesting 
objects. They present phases to Mars as our Moon 
does to us. 

The orbit of Mars is very elliptical. At perihelion 
the planet is only 128 millions of miles from the Sun, 
while at aphelion, he is 152 millions of miles away. 
Oiice in about sixteen years Mars and the Earth are 
upon the same side of the Sun. At that time our 
Earth is nearly at its greatest elongation in its orbit, 
and Mars is at it sleast. This curious arrangement 
brings the two planets comparatively near each other, 
and furnishes our astronomers with easy means of 
studying our little neighbor. He is called a minia- 
ture Earth. In his climatic conditions, his seasons, 
his geography, his zones, the distribution of land and 
water, and in many other ways he resembles our 
Earth. The marvelous power of our great telescopes, 
with their delicate appliances, have familiarized us 
with Mars as with no other planet. The distance 



68 WORLD MAKING. 

really separating us from Venus is much less than 
that from Mars. But when Mars is nearest to us we 
get a full view of his lighted side, with every facil- 
ity for careful observation. This is otherwise with 
Venus. We easily see on Mars his polar ice-fields, 
his oceans, his continents, his islands, the clouds 
which float across his sky, and the vast snow-storms 
that hurry toward his poles. 

In 1877, observers discovered prodigious canals on 
Mars, connecting seas and oceans. Secchi believed 
these to be artificial. In October, 1892, when Mars 
was again with us, the existence of these waterways 
was confirmed. They were, however, seen to be lines 
of lakes and rivers, and not artificial ditches. In 
1892, Mars was low down in the southern horizon, 
and the directors of the great Lick telescope had 
little opportunity for a prolonged examination. In 
1894 ^ was somewhat more favorable. When next 
the planet and the Earth come in opposition, great 
discoveries will then be made. The planet will be 
high in the heavens. The telescope of the Chicago 
University, with its forty-inch glass, will probably be 
then completed. This telescope will almost double 
the space-penetrating power of the thirty-six inch re- 
fractor at Mt. Hamilton. With such a power it will 
be possible to see cities on Mars, to detect navies in 
his harbors, and the smoke of great manufacturing 
cities and towns. And it may be possible to flash 
electric signals across this space, which could be 
readily seen by the inhabitants of Mars with tele- 
scopes of considerable power, and the answer easily 
seen by us. 



WORLD MAKING. 69 

Is Mars inhabited ? There can be little doubt o.'it. 
His conditions are all favorable for life, and life, too, 
of a high order. It is not improbable that there are 
beings there with a civilization as high, if not higher, 
than our own. Is it possible to know this of a cer- 
tainty ? Certainly. There are no impossibilities with 
science. The wildest dream to-day will be realized 
to-morrow. Of the triumphs of human genius there 
seem no bounds. 

THE ASTEROIDS. 

For many years in the history of Astronomy there 
lay a vast, untenanted space between the orbits of 
Mars and Jupiter. More than two hundred years ago 
it was believed that a planet existed in that space, 
yet no glass could discover one. So anxious were 
observers to explore that field that in 1800 an associa- 
tion of Astronomers divided the zodiac into parts, and 
assigned to each Astronomer one part for a thorough 
study and search. His entire attention was to be 
given to the one part assigned to him. Very soon 
Piazzi of Palermo discovered in his section a little 
planet, which he called Ceres. A few months after 
Olbers found another, which he named Pallas. And 
so on until now there are over four hundred of these 
little worlds catalogued. To our own Watson and 
Peters we owe most of our knowledge of the Asteroids. 
These little worlds, differing in size from thirteen 
miles in diameter to about three hundred and seventy- 
five miles, follow each other around the Sun in an 
irregular path. Their united weight is less than a 



70 WORLD MAKING. 

globe of eight hundred miles in diameter. They are 
so small that they do not perceptibly affect Mars or 
Jupiter. It requires a telescope of no inconsiderable 
power to reveal them, and when seen the observer 
must be greatly skilled or he will mistake them for 
some other objects. 

JUPITER. 

Far outside of this family of the minor planets, is 
the giant of the Solar System — Jupiter. He has a 
diameter of almost ninety thousand miles and sweeps 
around the Sun at a distance of almost 500 millions of 
miles. His path is so long that his year is nearly 
equal to twelve of our years. His rotation on his axis 
is so rapid that his day is less than ten of our hours in 
length. So rapid is this revolution that, but for the 
immense attraction of his great mass, objects on his 
surface would fly away into space. Indeed, were his 
attractive power no greater than that of our Earth the 
planet himself would fly into fragments and be lost. 
His axis is nearly perpendicular to his orbit, so he 
can have no changes of seasons, and his days and 
nights are of equal length over his entire surface. 

Jupiter has an enormous depth of atmosphere, 
which is loaded with massive cloud-belts. These 
belts move about one hundred miles a day. They 
are carried by the trade-winds which go in an oppo- 
site direction from ours. The density of the body of 
the planet is about equal to water. It is, doubtless, 
a liquid mass, not yet sufficiently cooled to have 
formed a crust over it. It is unquestionably self- 



WORLD MAKING. 71 

luminous ; and is largely the source of light and heat 
to its family of satellites. 

Around this monster Planet sweeps a gorgeous 
group of worlds. They are five in number. The 
four outer ones have diameters varying from three 
thousand to three thousand five hundred miles. The 
inner one has been recently discovered by Prof. Bar- 
nard of the Lick Observatory. It is very small, and 
beyond the reach of any but the giant telescopes of 
the world. Its periodic time about the Planet is less 
than twelve hours, at a distance of nearly 70 thousand 
miles. Great interest has alw T ays clustered about the 
principal satellites of Jupiter. They are planets in 
size, one of them being larger than Mercury. So far 
as Astronomers can determine they have every adapta- 
tion for living creatures. They are so far from the 
Sun that his light and heat can be little felt. But 
there is no doubt that Jupiter is self-luminous, and 
is himself a magnificent Sun to his satellites. These 
attendants upon the great Planet can be seen with the 
aid of a common field-glass. They differ in color from 
the stars and from each other and can be easily identi- 
fied. Owing, probably, to the different distribution 
of land and water on their surfaces, the amount of 
light given by them varies in a curious manner. 

The Jovian system is a miniature Solar System. In 
magnificence and splendor it is incomparable. At a 
distance of almost a half a billion miles from the Sun, 
this monster orb, with his little family of worlds, is 
sweeping around in the trackless void — a royal ship 
in commission on the high seas of space, with an 



72 WORLD MAKING. 

attending flotilla, and whose streaming banner of 
light, flaunted in the face of the sky, attests his right 
of wa}^. 

SATURN. 

The next planet outward from the Sun, and the 
second one in size, is Saturn. At a mean distance of 
more than 880 millions of miles he sweeps in his stu- 
pendous orbit around the Sun. His year is equal to 
almost thirty of ours. His density is less than water. 
His great mass is one liquid sea, soundless and shore- 
less. He is so unsubstantial in constitution that he 
changes his form continually. So immense are these 
changes that they are perceptible to us across the 
vast space, that lies between that Planet and our own. 
No life can exist on Saturn, but like Jupiter, he is 
probably self-luminous — a Sun to his satellites. He 
is so far from our Sun that the amount of light and 
heat that any portion of his surface receives from that 
source is but little more than the one-hundredth part 
of that received by a like portion of the Earth's sur- 
face. But the lack of heat and light from the Sun 
upon Saturn's satellites is probably fully compensated 
by the supply from the great body of the Planet. 

No sight in the heavens, as shown by a telescope of 
sufficient power, is more awe-inspiring than the Sa- 
turnian system. There is the central orb, with a 
diameter of nearly seventy-five thousand miles, sur- 
rounded by eight moons, sweeping in their orbits with 
wonderful speed, at various distances from the Planet, 
ranging from one hundred and twenty thousand miles 



WORLD MAKING. 73 

to almost two and one-half millions of miles ; and 
inside of these are three curious rings of magnificent 
proportions. The first view of this wonderful cluster 
inspires the observer with unutterable amazement. 
One of our great Astronomers tells us: "I well remem- 
ber the sensations with which I saw the ringed Planet 
for the first time. I look on that view as my intro- 
duction to the most fascinating of all the sciences." 
And this has been the experience of many. 

These eight satellites are at such various distances 
from the Planet that Astronomers believe that there 
are, at least, four more that have not yet been dis- 
covered. These may exist as small Asteroids, like 
those between Mars and Jupiter. There are great 
gaps between the fifth and sixth, and between the 
seventh and eighth moons. These gaps must be filled 
by some bodies, in order that the perfect balance of 
the system should be preserved. The distance at 
which they are from us is so great, that it is not strange 
that, if diminutive moons are there, that they have 
not yet been seen. That they are there is mathematic- 
ally certain. Are the moons of Saturn, w T ith which we 
are acquainted, inhabited? This is a difficult question 
to answer. As has been said, they are so far from us 
that it is difficult to study them closely. But the won- 
derful development of power in our telescopes reveals 
facts that lend probability to the supposition that 
they are inhabited. Of the exact condition of these 
little worlds, though, we are as yet comparatively 
ignorant. 

But the most curious, and, in many respects, the 
most interesting, objects in our Solar System, are the 



74 WORLD MAKING. 

rings of Saturn. They are, probably, three in num- 
ber. The inner one, at a distance of about ten thou- 
sand miles from the body of the Planet, is of a dark 
color, and nearly nine thousand miles in width. The 
next one is by far the brightest, and its width is more 
than twice the inner one. Then comes an open space 
of nearly two thousand miles, separating this ring 
from the outer one. The outer ring has a width of 
little more than the inner one, with no permanently 
marked color. Outside of these rings are the several 
satellites in their respective orbits. At present, the 
peculiar behavior of these rings is such as to arouse 
the keenest interest in them. This is more particu- 
larly true of the outer one. It is oscillating, or per- 
turbating, and this irregular motion is becoming more 
and more marked. It is believed by observers that 
this ring is soon to break. Surely, if this motion 
shall continue to increase, the ring will form folds or 
waves that will break it into fragments. This irreg- 
ular motion is caused, doubtless, by condensation 
occurring more rapidly in some parts than in others, 
and consequently loading some portions of the ring 
heavier than others. This unequal loading of its 
parts causes the ring to become more elliptical in 
shape. When this ring shall break the fragments 
will be drawn together and form another Moon, as 
will be hereafter explained. 

These rings are composed of nebulous matter, filled, 
in places, with nuclei of denser material. Every 
particle of matter in these rings is in constant motion. 
Gravitation, magnetic currents, chemical attraction 



WORLD MAKING. 75 

and repulsion, together with the motion given its 
particles by the movement of the rings about the 
Planet, make them masses of moving particles, swing- 
ing around the vortices of great whirlpools, and 
dashed and hurled by magnetic storms. And so rapid 
is the swinging, flattening and lateral movements 
of the outer ring, that we never see it twice the same. 
At present it seems possible that the inner ring may 
fall back upon the Planet. A different motion may, 
however, soon be established. These rings are al- 
ways very erratic in their behavior. Being unequally 
loaded in their several parts, as has been said, they 
assume curious forms. Nothing may occur during 
this generation of men ; but at no very distant period 
of time, these several rings will become attendant 
Moons in the family of the great Planet. 

URANUS. 

We now pass outward in our journey to what has 
been termed the Arctic regions of our System. The 
first Planet is Uranus. This Planet is separated from 
the ringed Saturn by more than 900 millions of miles ; 
and more than one and three-quarter billions of miles 
lie between him and the Sun. He is a little denser 
than Saturn, but his material is liquid. His year is 
equal to eighty-four of ours. He is so large that when 
compared with any of the minor planets he is a giant. 
His diameter is about thirty-two thousand miles, and 
he is attended by six moons. Of these moons we 
know little. Two of them are seen with great diffi- 
culty even by the aid of our most powerful telescopes. 



76 WORLD MAKING. 

It is generally believed that the moons of this 
Planet have a retrograde motion — that is, a motion in 
the opposite direction from all known celestial bodies. 
This motion is not clearly established. But even the 
uncertainty invests these objects with a peculiar inter- 
est. But suppose it be true that these moons have 
a retrograde motion, it can easily be accounted for. 
Some known planets and satellites have a great in- 
clination of the poles. Suppose one of these were 
tipped up so that, revolving on the line of nodes as 
an axis until it had passed 85 degrees, still continuing 
on in its orbit in that plane, it would go over the poles 
instead of about the equator, and then go back to its 
path when the plane was revolved 180 degrees. Its 
revolution would then be retrograde, or from east to 
west. We can easily suppose influences operating 
that might effect this result. The motion of the 
Planet itself is not known. 

NEPTUNE. 

Journeying outward from the Sun into the incon- 
ceivable depths of almost three billions of miles, we 
reach the outpost of our Solar System. Neptune, the 
outermost known Planet, swings around the Sun in an 
orbit so long that it requires 165 of* our years to com- 
plete it, and at a rate of speed of more than 200 miles 
a minute. This Planet is somewhat larger than 
Uranus, having a diameter of nearly thirty- five thou- 
sand miles. His density is not surely known ; but the= 
materials of which he is composed are very rarefied. 
He is attended by one moon, which, like those of 



WORLD MAKING. 77 

Uranus, has a supposed retrograde motion. The 
Planet is so far away that our knowledge of him is 
necessarily limited. He cannot be inhabited by beings 
constituted as we are. His moon may be the home of 
life, and, like the moons of less distant planets, get 
its light and heat from the primary. The Planet is at 
so great a distance from the Sun that little light and 
heat can be derived from him. His discovery con- 
stituted an epoch in the history of mathematical 
Astronomy. 

OTHER BODIES, NOT WORLDS. 

In addition to the worlds already described, there 
are belonging to our Solar System, collections of mat- 
ter known by various names and behaving in various 
ways. The Meteors are of many densities, from 
clouds of rarest gas to solid rocks ; and differ in size 
from a dust grain to a little world. Sometimes 
these Meteors are alone. Sometimes they cluster 
together, forming streams millions of miles long, or 
whirlpools around some vast vortex. Hundreds ot 
millions of them come within the attraction of our 
Earth every year. The solid bodies are known as shoot- 
ing stars ; these are cold when they reach our atmos- 
phere, but the friction caused by their rapid move- 
ment generates sufficient heat to dissolve them into 
gas, and they are then consumed. Space is filled 
with these little bodies. It is estimated that our 
Earth meets more than eight million of them daily. 
In some parts of space they are much thicker than in 
others. In places there is an aggregation of these 



78 WORLD MAKING. 

bodies, which form systems and revolve with periodic 
accuracy. Our Earth passes through one of these 
meteoric belts on the ioth day of August each year, 
and another one on the nth day of November, and 
still another on the 24th of January, and so on. 
These vast streams revolve around the Sun in very 
elliptical orbits. They cross and recross the pathway 
of every planet. Countless millions of bodies from 
these streams are poured into the Sun daily. They 
constitute a great factor in keeping up the heat of 
our luminary. 

The Comets are another curious class of objects. 
They are really wandering planets of less density and 
wider range of movements. They have periodic times 
of revolution. These vary from a few months to 
thousands of years. They obey the same laws that 
the Planets obey. The nuclei of the Comets revolve 
on their axes as they sweep in their awful journeys 
around the Sun. They are composed of gas, or mete- 
oric matter, with a nucleus or vortex, which is the 
center of motion. They come among the Planets 
from every angle with the plane of the ecliptic. 
Their light is the reflected, light of the Sun. Their 
orbits are greatly elongated. Some of them have one 
end of their, orbits inside the orbit of Venus, and the 
other end thousands of millions of miles beyond Nep- 
tune. 

When nearest the Sun, a speed of four hundred 
miles a second is not uncommon. Comets, too, are 
very numerous. We know hundreds of them. Man} 7 
with which we were acquainted have been lost. They 



WORLD MAKING. 79 

are easily influenced by the attraction of the Planets, 
and frequently change their orbits. They change, 
too, their period of revolution ; and some of them 
plunge out into inter-solar spaces, and quiver there 
between the conflicting attraction of our own and 
other Suns, and finally may go to other Solar Sys- 
tems. And, doubtless, their Comets come to us. Not 
unfrequently a stranger sails into our Solar Seas ; she 
brings no flag but the burning ensign of the skies, 
and never stops to show her manifest. She is a won- 
derful traveler. Her voyage has been a long one, if 
not perilous. A Comet could not make the journey 
from another Sun to ours in less time than 185 mil- 
lions of years. 

I have spoken of Neptune as the outpost of our 
Solar System. By that was meant that he is the out- 
ermost known world. But beyond him lies an inter- 
solar space too great for comprehension. As has 
been stated, Comets range into this space thousands 
of millions of miles. Worldless and lifeless, rayless 
and cold, is this marvelous void ! And yet, attraction 
and magnetic influences sweep across this awful 
space, and tie our System with other Systems. We 
feel the thrill of mighty cosmic forces that throb 
through these unreckoned distances, from Suns be- 
yond the reach of our giant telescopes. But regard- 
less of distance or magnitude, the universe is a unity. 
Worlds make Solar Systems. Thousands of Solar 
Systems make one Astral System that sweeps around 
its center. Thousands upon thousands of these unite 
to make one Stellar System, which revolves around 



80 WORI.D MAKING. 

its central Sun. And, again, thousands of thousands 
of these Systems unite to make our Sidereal Heavens, 
that march in an inconceivable journey around a 
mighty center somewhere beyond our ken ; and un- 
reckoned thousands of these make a greater System, 
and so on, and on, forever. And yet, all bodies in 
these countless Systems filling infinite space, are com- 
posed, essentially, of the same elements, and are tied 
into a perfect unity by laws and processes that hold 
alike the small and great. Suns sweep around Suns, 
and Systems around Systems in ever-widening cir- 
cles, endowed with a force of inertia, and bound to- 
gether by an invisible attraction, and all in a balance 
so perfect that countless ages reveal no variation and 
no friction. 

A good friend, who has now gone to the " realms 
celestial," has idealized the majestic flight of the 
Comet in the following noble verse : 

THE COMET— A NEW CRAFT IN THE OFFING. 

'Twas a beautiful night on a beautiful deep, 

And the man at the helm had just fallen asleep, 

And the watch on the deck, with his head on his breast, 

Was beginning to dream that another's it pressed, 

When the lookout aloft cried, " A sail ! ho ! a sail ! " 

And the question and answer went rattling like hail ! 

"A sail! ho! a sail ! " " Where away?" " No'th-no'th- 

west ! " 
"Make her out? " "No, your honor." The din drowned 

the rest. 

There indeed is the stranger, the first in these seas, 
Yet she drives boldly on iu the teeth of the breeze, 
Now her bows to the breakers she steadily turns, 



WORIJ) MAKING. 8 1 

Oh ! how brightly the light of her binnacle burns ! 

Not a signal for Saturn this rover has given, 

No salute for our Venus, the flag-star of heaven ! 

Not a rag or a ribbon adorning her spars, 

She has saucily sailed by "the red planet, Mars " ; 

She has doubled triumphant the cape ot the Sun, 

And the sentinel stars without firing a gun ! 

"Helm a port!" "Show a light!" "She will run us 

aground !" 
"Fire a gun !" "Bring her to ! " " Sail a-hoy ! " "Whither 

bound ? " 

Avast there, ye lubbers ! Leave the rudder alone ; 
'Tis a craft in commission — the Admiral's own ; 
And she sails with sealed orders, unopened as yet, 
Though her anchors she weighed before Lucifer set. 
Ah, she sails by a chart no draughtsman can make, 
Where each cloud that can trail, and each wave that can 

break ; 
Where that sparkling flotilla, the Asteroids lie, 
Where the scarf of red Morning is flung on the sky ; 
Where the breath of the sparrow is staining the air — 
On the chart that she bears you will find them all there ! 
Let her pass on in peace to the port whence she came, 
With her trackings of fire and her streamers of flame. 



THE BIRTH AND DEATH OF WORLDS. 

In our brief survey of Nature we have seen that all 
natural laws and processes have a uniform application 
and action. And this regardless of time, or distance, 
or magnitude. The spectroscope has proved the unity 
of matter. All Suns and constellations and worlds are 
composed, essentially, of the same materials. Burning 
hydrogen, or iron, or magnesium, gives the same col- 
ored rays, whether burned in our laboratory or in a 
Comet or blazing Sun. And in the operation of these 
laws and forces, there is no Here nor There — no Now 
nor Then. The universe is one grand unit. Matter 
everywhere is in a constant evolution and change. 
Rest is nowhere. Not a particle, however small, can 
remain in the same condition for however brief a 
period of time. Gravitation, magnetic and electric 
action, chemical attraction and repulsion, light and 
heat, and thousands of other unseen forces keep inor- 
ganic matter in "an active state of unrest." The 
flaming constellations, and the sweeping systems that 
people the realms of space, obey no other law than do 
the microscopic partitles that gather around the crys- 
tal's nucleus. And time changes not these operations. 
Suns sweep around their centers now as they did when 
■'the morning stars sang together, " "All are but 



84 WORLD MAKING. 

parts of one stupendous whole." And behind all 
action, and all evolution, there is a Divine Plan, and 
all things are, and have forever been, working to that 
plan. And in working to that plan all forces are 
guided by an Infinite Intelligence, and Power, and 
Will, to which matter and law yield willing obedience. 
If, then, we have been able to discover the laws and 
processes on never so small a scale, we have discovered 
them for every scale and for all time. The falling 
apple of Newton revealed the law that holds worlds 
together and makes Suns akin. The plan, when broken 
into anywhere, gives glimpses of its entirety. To 
know a part is to see the whole, so perfect is its unity. 
Let us take these general considerations into our more 
specific investigations. 

As has been explained, the Geologist takes us back 
to a time in the history of our Earth when it was a 
liquid sea, shoreless and soundless, and "without 
form and void." But the Astronomer takes us back to 
a still remoter period when the matter of our Earth 
was in another form. And not the matter in our Earth 
only, but that now in the Sun, and in every object in 
our Solar System. It was not liquid, but gaseous. 
It was so rarefied and attenuated that it was diffused 
through the vast space of our System in the condition 
of a nebulous and fiery gas. So rare w T as it that if 
human eyes had then existed they could have seen the 
stars of heaven undimmed through it. It was thinner 
by many times than our atmosphere, and hotter than a 
furnace blaze. It was a filmy cloud of heated gas. But 
it was, however, unequally heated. Cooler currents ran 



WORLD MAKING. 85 

through it here and there. Chemical and magnetic 
attraction formed vast nuclei, around which particles 
gathered. Neither were these particles evenly bal- 
anced. Vast whirlpools were thus formed whose aw- 
ful vortices chasmed the abyss. 

The conflicting rotary motion around these vortices 
caused condensation. That created a still greater dis- 
turbance. The denser matter broke into fragments, 
each of which constituted a nucleus around which 
particles gathered. Vortices multiplied indefinitely. 
Nuclei increased in number and in magnitude. The 
differences in heat caused vast currents, that rushed 
in irregular lines everywhere. The swirling mass was 
billowy with action. The whirlpools became larger. 
Condensation was unequal. Great abysses opened 
and closed. At length a greater whirlpool was formed 
with its vortex w T here our Sun now is. Around this, 
denser particles swirled and dashed. As the con- 
densation here increased, the greater accumulation of 
matter augmented the attractive force. Particles 
rushed to that center and joined in the sweeping mo- 
tion around that vortex. This continued until all the 
matter in our Solar System w T as put in motion around 
this center — the home of our future Sun. 

When this rotary motion was established centrifugal 
force caused the mass to expand at the equator and 
flatten at the poles. The mass thus became a flattened 
globe, or rather a spokeless wheel. Within this re- 
volving mass countless nuclei were formed by con- 
densation caused by the conflicting currents. It is a 
familiar knowledge that counter-currents in a gaseous 



86 WORLD MAKINC 

or vaporous mass always lower the temperature. A 
familiar illustration may be given. When in the upper 
zone of the atmosphere, there are conflicting currents 
of magnetism, or of air, the vapor will be frozen into 
irregular globules of ice, which will fall in a shower of 
hail. In like manner globules were formed in this 
matter. The globules thus formed were heavier than 
the surrounding matter. Centrifugal force ultimately 
threw these to the outer portion of the revolving mass. 
The heat there was radiated into space rapidly; and a 
constant accumulation from within resulted finally in 
building up a ring of denser matter at the equato- 
rial surface. The parting of the heat into inter- 
solar spaces hastened condensation, and the shell or 
ring thereby became denser and heavier. It received 
constant additions from within, by centrifugal force 
pushing out the heavier particles, which attached them- 
selves to the inner surface. These greatly increased 
the weight. Finally the ring became so heavy, and 
the centrifugal force so great that it could not contract 
to meet the demands of th& filmy mass within. And 
the mass within was constantly contracting from con- 
densation. The ring or shell finally reached a point 
in weight where the attractive and centrifugal forces 
were equal. It could, therefore, neither go out nor in, 
and as the mass within contracted it separated from 
the ring. As the ring met with no resistance it con- 
tinued the motion it had when it was disengaged. 
This ring revolved in the space now occupied as the 
orbit or path of Neptune. 

The condensation in the matter within continued, 
causing the volume of matter to decrease, until finally 



WORI.D MAKING. 87 

another ring was formed in the same way ; and in the 
same way was disengaged and swept around the cen- 
tral mass in the present path of Uranus. In like 
manner another ring was formed and disengaged for 
Saturn ; another for Jupiter, the Asteroids, Mars, 
Earth, Venus and Mercury. The remaining matter 
has made the great body of our Sun. We then had 
a Solar System of rings. No planets were yet formed. 
For ages and ages these rings continued to revolve. 
Great changes, however, were taking place in them. 
Condensation went on in their mass ; but it went on 
unequally. Some parts of the rings became heavier 
than other parts. This inequality caused the rings to 
flatten, and become elliptical. This unequal weight, 
too, caused an irregularity in motion as has already 
been explained in connection with the outer ring of 
Saturn. This irregularity of motion increasing, and 
condensation going on in the entire body of the ring, 
finally caused the outer and first formed ring, to break 
into fragments. Each fragment of the broken ring at 
once took a revolutionary motion on its own axis. 
These revolving fragments ultimately came together, 
and by their union built up the planet Neptune, 
the firstborn of the children of the Sun. When thus 
formed he was still vaporous, and his diameter was 
somewhat more than the diameter of the orbit of his 
moon. In like manner, there was formed a ring 
around his body, and which was thrown off in the 
same way, and of which his moon was made. 

In the same manner the next ring was dismembered 
and of the fragments Uranus was formed — a globular 



88 WORLD MAKING. 

cloud of fiery vapor. From this mass was thrown ofi 
in succession six rings, of which his several moons 
were formed. Of the next ring Saturn was formed. 
He was the most prolific of all the primaries, having 
thrown off eleven rings. Eight of these, as has been 
already explained, have broken, and been formed into 
moons. Three still remain in the original form un- 
broken, but giving evidence in themselves of early 
moon-making. And so on with the other planets. 

Between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, as has been 
explained, are a family of little worlds, called the 
Asteroids. Over four hundred of them are known. 
They follow each other around the Sun within a nar- 
row zone. These little worlds are doubtless the 
fragments of a dismembered ring. Why these frag- 
ments never came together we cannot comprehend. 
It is possible to conceive such a perfect balance of the 
fragments left, as this hypothesis supposes, — a bal- 
ance so perfect that each might run in its own path 
forever. There is nothing mathematically incon- 
sistent in this. The wonder is that it should not have 
repeated itself. And perhaps there have been many 
repetitions in the regions beyond the pathway of 
Neptune. That space may be peopled with wonders 
of which we little dream. Ringed Saturns of diminu. 
tive size, and clusters of planetoids may people space 
there. 

The general operation of all law r s and processes 
must be kept in mind. Our Solar System is but one 
cf countless millions within the reach of our great 
telescopes. And as ours was formed so w T ere these. 



WORLD MAKING. 89 

And, in like manner, Solar Systems, will continue to 
be formed forever and forever. 

The magnificent hypothesis above explained was 
first suggested by Laplace.* It received wonderful 
confirmation in the discoveries of the elder Herschel, 
who gave it a modified endorsement. It has never 
been free from objections, but each new discovery has 
added confirmation to its essential truth. It is now 
generally accepted by men of science, not as perfect, 
but as being, all in all, the most satisfactory philos- 
ophy of world making yet advanced. It is not in 
place here to array arguments and facts to prove it. 
These discussions can be found in nearly all books 
on Astronomy. It is my purpose to bring to the mind 
of my readers, unencumbered by any controversy, 
these sublime processes in an entirety. They will 
thus be enabled to grasp them, which they could not 
do if led away by a discussion of any' kind. 

There is still a vast amount of unabsorbed nebulous 
matter in our Solar System. Of this, Comets and 
Meteors are made. The zodiacal lights, which are 
doubtless reflections of the Sun's rays on the nebulous 
clouds, are proof of the presence of this matter. The 
1 ' tails ' ' of Comets are a farther proof. These are 
always from the Sun, no matter in which direction the 
Comet may run. The most probable explanation is 
that the " tail " is the reflected light of the Sun, on 
the waves in the nebulous clouds, caused by the pas- 
sage of the nucleus. The spaces between the planets 



*The reader should turn back to the preceding chapter and study again 
what was there said of Saturn and the Asteroids. 



90 WORLD MAKING. 

are peopled with little bodies, formed by condensation 
of this nebulous matter. They are too small for us 
to see, except when they fall within our atmosphere, 
as was explained in the chapter on the Solar System. 
Our Earth was formed by the coming together of 
the fragments of the broken ring, like all the other 
planets. When thus formed it was a fiery vapor. The 
forces which have been described as forming the rings 
of which the planets were made, were active in the 
attenuated body of our Earth. The result was that, 
in time, it threw off a ring. Of the fragments of this 
ring our Moon was formed. The matter of the Earth 
continued its condensation until it became a liquid 
mass. The Earth's diameter then was considerably 
greater than it is now. In this liquid state the Astron- 
omer leaves it. From that period it has belonged to 
the Geologist. And he tells us that the great Earth 
is still a liquid mass, but crusted over by a shell of 
rocks. That at best this crust is thin, but thickening 
age by age. Vast periods have passed, during which 
the heated mass has radiated its heat into space. 
Centrifugal force assisted in strengthening the shell 
or crust, and giving the Earth stability and form. At 
length it became the home of life. Seas swarmed 
with living beings and earth and air were peopled 
with prolific tribes. At first the forms of life were 
simple — mere animated nerveless masses. These were 
exposed to so many dangers, in the unsettled state of 
things, that sympathetic Nature clothed them with 
protecting shells. As ages went by, higher forms of 
life swarmed in the sea and on the land. Many of the 



WORLD MAKING. $1 

previous tribes continued to survive. But countless 
forms of life have in succession claimed the Earth. It 
has been a battle-ground of races. But as the Earth 
grew older and the crust thicker and cooler, higher 
and still higher life claimed land and sea. The Earth 
has matured. It is rich now in the possession of 
Man. But its progress to this state of perfection has 
been slow. Its age is very great. 

With the introduction of Man on this planet creat- 
ive activity ceased. No distinctively new forms of 
life have appeared since that event. But many forms 
and types have disappeared. Races and tribes un- 
counted have become extinct. No new forms have 
come to take their place. . The Earth has passed its 
producing period. It is in its decadence. Worlds 
like men are born. They grow and mature, and 
decline and die. We have described Mercury and 
our Moon. These are known to be dead worlds. And 
our Earth is dying. The great reservoirs of melted 
matter within are rapidly cooling. The forces that 
w T ere originally at work crusting the Earth over are 
active still. Vast globules of denser matter are thrown 
outward from the heated interior, and attach them- 
selves to the inner surface of this shell or crust. 
Through millions of pores the heat is radiated. This 
thrown-off heat warms our soils, the waters of our 
seas, and the air. Through the open craters of five 
hundred active volcanoes, to-day, the hot gas and 
fiery floods are poured. 

In boring artesian wells, and for gas and oil, it has 
been ascertained that after getting a few feet below 



92 WORLD MAKING. 

the surface, the temperature increases one degree 
for about forty feet of additional depth. At this rate 
of increase, at a depth of not many miles, the heat is 
so great as not only to melt, but to vaporize, all 
known metals, if exposed to the air. From data 
deemed reliable, it is believed that the crust varies in 
different parts of the Earth from not far from ten 
miles in thickness to nearly eight hundred miles. It 
is thinnest at the equator, for the reason that the 
motion is greater there in the Earth's movement on its 
axis. 

The mere suggestion of this fact to the Geologist 
would carry its own explanation. But that it may be 
clear to all, let me explain it. A stream of water that 
doubles around an eddy with a rapid current, has a 
tendency to eat into the bank where the eddy is. If 
the water be loaded with sediment, the sediment may 
be dropped before it reaches the eddy, but if not, it 
will be carried through and deposited in the slack- 
ened current beyond. The same rule prevails in the 
Earth. The motion is very considerable at the equa- 
tor. An object on the surface at that point moves 
with the Earth on its axis more than a thousand miles 
an hour. In other words it goes twenty-five thousand 
miles in twenty-four hours. This motion decreases 
constantly as we go from this point towards the poles. 
At the poles there is little motion. Now, the subter- 
ranean liquid mass is sucked up against the inner sur- 
face of the crust at the equator, by the greater motion 
there, like an eddy in a stream against the bank. 
Great continental globules of denser matter are hurled 



WORLD MAKING. 93 

against the crust there by the strong currents. They 
are swirled about in the rushing eddies of a magni- 
tude so great as to be sublime. These globules finally 
find their way out of the eddies, and fasten them- 
selves upon the interior of the crust where the motion 
is less, at or near the poles. The result of all this is, 
that the crust is thickening much more rapidly at the 
poles than nearer the equator. Were it not for chemi- 
cal action, and the radiation of heat, the crust would 
wear through at the equator, as streams of water eat 
away the banks. 

The result of the thickening of the crust in the 
polar regions is seen m the lowering of the tempera- 
ture there. Over any considerable period of time, the 
lowering of the temperature is plainly seen. There 
are coal beds in Labrador made of tropical plants. 
The remains of tropical trees and animals are found 
in abundance in Northern Siberia. The polar regions, 
at no greatly distant geological age, were the habita- 
tions of tropical forests, at the base of whose trees the 
bamboo bushes and the canebrakes were the hiding 
places of crocodiles and lizards akin to those now 
swarming in the Ganges and the Nile. But, even 
within the historic ages the changes are clearly 
marked. For instance, sixty years ago we sailed 
into open seas in search of Sir John Franklin. These 
seas are now solid masses of ice. Within half a hun- 
dred years many well-known species of plants and 
animals, having their home in these regions, have 
become extinct. And life is gradually but certainly 
leaving the Frigid and Northern and Southern Tem- 



94 WORLD MAKING. 

perate Zones. A few more years and the Laplander 
and the Esquimo will be creatures of the past, with 
the reindeer, the walrus and the polar bear. A 
change of habitat, only, can save them from extinc- 
tion. 

As a consequence oi this lowering of the tempera- 
ture, life is moving towards the equator. There the 
crust is thin ; and the rapid radiation of heat from 
within, aided by the more direct rays of the Sun, gives 
a climate more favorable to life. In this zone, with 
few exceptions, are the active volcanoes. L,ife must 
continue to press equator-way. And the belt of life 
there will become narrower and narrower as the years 
go by. The crust will continue to thicken rapidly at 
the poles. If the crust, less than a thousand miles in 
thickness now, cause such marked effects, what will 
be the effect when it shall be two thousand, or three 
thousand miles in thickness? Then the belt of life 
will be narrow, indeed, and composed of the most 
hardy species. And then comes the end of life. 
When the polar crust shall be somewhat less than four 
thousand miles in thickness the fires within will all 
become extinct, and our Earth, like Mercury and our 
Moon, will be dead. The poet's dream will then be 
realized, for the ''Earth will hang cold and lifeless in 
the sky.' ' It will then have neither atmosphere nor 
water on its surface. It will be cloudless, and sky- 
less. A dead world, covered with desolation and 
ruin ! 

By this rule we should expect to find the smallest 
planets the coolest. And this is true. Of the moons 



WORLD MAKING. 95 

of the several planets we know little. But in the 
planets themselves this rule holds good. Mercury, 
our smallest planet, is cold. It is desired that what is 
here said of the temperature shall not be confounded 
with the density. The density of bodies is greatly 
influenced by other causes. Gravitation, but for heat, 
would make the largest planets densest. Of the 
density of the planets there seems to be no rule. But 
our instruments now enable us to measure the tem- 
perature of bodies. Formerly, we were obliged to 
estimate the degrees of heat largely by the density. 
Mars we know is much cooler than our Earth. The 
telescopes reveal vast polar ice-fields relatively much 
larger than our own. The Planet is smaller, and has 
cooled sooner. Venus is little different from our 
Earth, because differing little in size. There is little 
doubt that the same rules applies to the Asteroids and 
satellites. Our observations, however, have not yet 
been sufficiently thorough to assert it. Nor are our 
instruments sufficiently delicate to determine accu- 
rately the temperature of these little worlds, so far 
separated from us. 

Is it possible to determine how long a time before 
life will become extinct on our Planet ? Doubtless an 
approximation may be made by carefully estimating 
the trend of all the forces. The problem involves so 
many factors that it would be difficult. Some mathe- 
maticians have attempted it. But much speculation 
must necessarily enter into any computation. Scien- 
tifically considered, the event is not remote. But 
reckoned by our years, they will be many. 



96 WORLD MAKING. 

And then ? It is a fact long since determined that 
the planets are moving toward the Sun. Our year is 
steadily shortening. If you tie a ball at the end of a 
string and whirl it about your hand, allowing the 
string to wind around your finger at each revolution, 
you will readily see that the ball will make each rev- 
lution in less time than the preceding one. The rea- 
son of this is, you are shortening the distance over 
which the ball flies. So the orbit of our Earth is 
shortening year by } T ear. This is seen only when we 
take into account any considerable period of time. 
And as the orbit of our Earth shortens, so must the 
orbits of the other planets to maintain their relative 
balance. The condensation of the Sun, too, would 
render him opaque in a few millions of years. He 
would then lose every characteristic of a Sun. The 
Solar System must then be made over. "A new 
heaven and a new Earth" must appear. 

The scientific and logical result can be easily seen. 
The dead planets, with their attending satellites, will 
be drawn into the Sun. Mercury will first plunge 
into that fiery abyss. Venus will soon follow. The 
perfect balance of the Solar System will be disturbed. 
Planet after planet will be hurled to its fiery burial. 
The tremendous concussions resulting, together with 
the introduction of so much combustible matter into 
the Sun, will so increase the heat that this matter will 
be again made gaseous, and again diffused as a nebu- 
lous cloud throughout the present Solar space. Out 
of this nebulous cloud other worlds will be formed, as 
the existing worlds were made, It is doubtles true 



WORLD MAKING. 97 

that the matter of oar present planets have entered 
into the composition of untold millions of worlds, be- 
fore the present existing ones were made ; and that it 
will enter into millions more before the Divine pur- 
poses shall be complete. 

As has been said, Suns and Worlds, like men, are 
born. They grow, mature, decline and die. Noth- 
ing can be destroyed. Matter only changes form. 
Each particle enters into different relations with other 
particles. Decay and death are everywhere. Disso- 
lution comes with time. All forms are evanescent. 
Matter takes new shapes with new combinations. It 
is only change. Worlds die and dissolve. From 
their gaseous mass new worlds are made. The forces 
and processes repeat themselves. That is all. And 
generations of Systems come and go. And so they 
will come and go forever. 

Sometimes new stars appear in the heavens and 
burn for a time, and then go out. These are doubt- 
less Suns into which their planets have plunged. The 
convulsions make the light intense, and heretofore 
unknown stars will rise, frequently into stars of the 
first magnitude. In 1572 a new star appeared in 
Cassiopeia, on November 10. The next night it had 
attained to the first magnitude. It continued to in- 
crease in brilliancy; and in a few days could easily be 
seen with the naked eyes at noonday. The next 
month it began to fade, and in the following May it 
entirely disappeared, and has never been seen since. 

A similar phenomenon occurred in 1604, in the con- 
stellation Ophiuchus. A star of the first magnitude 



98 WORLD MAKING. 

blossomed out there in October. Early in the winter 
following it began to wane, but remained visible for 
nearly a year, when it entirely faded away and has 
never since been seen. 

A very notable case, in recent times, was in May, 
1866, when a star of the second magnitude suddenly 
appeared in Corona Borealis. On the nth and 12th 
of that month it was seen, independently, by at 
least five observers in Europe and America. It was a 
new star. No catalogue embraced it. It blazed out 
suddenly. Schmidt, of Athens, asserts in the most 
positive manner that the star was not visible on 
the previous night, as he was then scanning that 
part of the heavens, and would certainly have seen it 
had it been there. 

Another recent case occurred in November, 1876. 
A new star of the third magnitude suddenly appeared 
in the Constellation Cygnus. In a few days, however, 
it began to fade, and disappeared entirely in a few 
weeks ; and it has not since been visible through our 
giant telescopes. 

Another, and still more recent case, was the new 
star discovered by Andrews, of the Edinburgh Ob- 
servatory, on February 1st, 1892, in the Constellation 
Auriga. On that date it was of the fifth magnitude, 
and was visible to the naked eye. It remained vis- 
ible about six weeks, when it rapidly decreased in 
intensity and was finally lost to our largest telescopes. 
In August following it again appeared, but only of 
the tenth magnitude, but gradually increased in bril- 
liancy, and faded in Jul} 7 , 1893. It commanded great 



WORLD MAKING. 99 

attention, and owing to the perfection of our spectro- 
scopes has been more satisfactorily studied than any 
former case. 

A noteworthy fact, in connection with these new 
stars, is that in no case were they seen until they had' 
nearly attained their greatest brilliancy. This proves 
that they blazed up at once by some extraordinary 
combustion. These are, doubtless, stars so small and 
so distant as to be invisible ; when fed by planets and 
satellites they blaze into brilliance, and this bright- 
ness continues until they are all consumed into a 
vaporous condition and disappear forever. And this 
will be the end of our own Sun. Invisible now to eyes 
in far distant systems, it will, by and by, blaze into a 
brilliance that shall flood this constellation, and will 
be an object of interest where its very existence is now 
unknown. 

Magnificent as these occurrences will be, we shall 
survive them. And when the time shall come, as 
come it surely will, when " the heavens shall be rolled 
together as a scroll "; when " the elements shall melt 
with a fervent heat "; and when " the Earth, and all 
that is therein, shall be burned up," we will stand in 
"that house of many mansions," and raising our 
voices in grateful praise, will thank God that He 
made us men. 

THK END. 



